Date Night
by StoryQuipster
Summary: Okay, first things first, just to clarify; he honestly doesn't mean to interfere with Juvia's love life.
1. Chapter 1

**1**

* * *

Okay, first things first, just to clarify; he honestly doesn't mean to interfere with Juvia's love life.

_Honestly_.

She's kind of his friend (Okay fine, so she's his _best friend/honorary sister/platonic life partner_. Whatever.) and as lame as it sounds, they actually tell each other everything. Well, not everything _everything_ obviously, but still. They basically talk enough to know a good deal of shit about each other. Even though he's not the chatty kind of person, they've known each other for a long time and he respects and trusts her enough to actually tell her stuff about himself. They talk about anything that's worth talking about when they have the time—their families, missions, music, the weird-tasting casserole Mira had served the other day. Nothing's basically off limits between them.

Well, that is, except for the subject of relationships and dating.

It's just one of those things that he _absolutely_ does not want to discuss, even with her. _Especially with her._ He's never really been good with the whole expressing-your-emotions crap and knowing Juvia, he's sure that she's going to take whatever he says about Shrimp the wrong way. Ever since he let it slip that he may have a small, minuscule, very slight(seriously, it's practically non-existent) _thing_ for Levy, Juvia has convinced herself that he actually _likes_ Levy or something.

_Which is obviously not true._

Anyways, even though he's made a ban on the whole relationship-discussion-front, it's not as if it has stopped Juvia from talking about Stripper for like, ninety-nine percent of the time—it's always Stripper this, Stripper that. Seriously. It's the most annoying thing ever. It irritates the living fuck out of him but he tolerates it and listens to her anyways, because she's a good friend and she at least deserves the respect of having him actually listen to her and not write her off.

So yeah, he's not completely clueless when it comes to _her_ love life. Still, he tries not to touch that thing with a ten foot pole. He's known Juvia long enough to know that he's better off avoiding all her crazy. Whenever she asks him for advice, he usually brushes her off because 1.) he has no fucking clue how relationships are supposed to work and 2.) she's like a sister to him and discussing "how to pleasure her Gray-sama" is seriously the most uncomfortable thing ever. He cares about her and he supports her and stuff, but it's the one aspect in her life that he has no plans on ever getting involved in.

That is, until Stripper's Gay Brother from that other guild corners him one morning while he is taking a drink from one of his favorite bars. He doesn't even realize that Gay Stripper was following him up until he comes up and surprises Gajeel by coming up from beside him.

"Hello," he smoothly says, as he slips into a seat next to Gajeel.

Gajeel chokes on his beer and tries to catch his bearings as he attempts to wipe away the spilled beer on the front of his shirt. "The fuck?"

"My apologies for startling you," he politely says as he gestures at the barman to give him a tankard of beer.

Gajeel blinks once at him, immediately on guard. He can't exactly remember Gay Stripper's name (Dyon? Byron? Tyon?) but what he does know is that the man comes from a rival guild. He scrunches his brow as he tries to remember more details about Gay Stripper but the only thing he can come up with is that he used to be Stripper's brother and that Juvia mentioned something about him once when she showed him that ridiculously complicated love diagram she had made.

His eyes widen in realization when he remembers the _specifics_ of the diagram and he gruffly says, "Wait. If you're looking for Juvia, she isn't here."

"Actually, while I was in fact looking for Juvia, my true objective was to talk to you," Gay Stripper tells him.

Gajeel suddenly tenses up and he grips the handle of his beer mug tighter. He quickly says, "I'm not interested. I don't swing that way."

It's now Gay Stripper's turn to be poleaxed. He nearly slips off his seat and drops his tankard as his cheeks redden. He indignantly says, "I'm not trying to come on to you."

"Oh," Gajeel says although he's still suspicious. From what he can remember from the love diagram (What? Juvia spent like, thirty minutes yammering to him about it.), Stripper has a thing for his Gay Stripper Brother. Or was it the other way around? "So what the fuck do you want to talk to me about?"

"I need to ask you a favor," Gay Stripper seriously says.

"I already told you. I'm not interested—''

"Not _that_ kind of favor," Gay Stripper exasperatedly says. "It has something to do with Juvia."

"Look, I don't know what crazy love triangle you three are involved in, but I'm not helping you take Juvia out—''

"Why would I even want you to do that?" he sputters, completely flummoxed.

"Wait. Aren't you and Juvia fighting over Stripper—I mean Gray or something?" Gajeel says in confusion.

"No! _Me and Gray_ are fighting over Juvia!" Gay Stripper snaps.

"But...Juvia said..." he trails off and decides not to continue, because knowing Juvia, her crazy-ass imagination probably misinterpreted the entire situation. Fuck. Sometimes he seriously wonders what goes on in that head of hers. "Never mind..."

"Anyways, I wanted to talk to you because I heard from my sources—''

"Sources? You've been stalking me!?" Gajeel demands, suddenly suspicious all over again.

"No, I was stalking—I mean _observing_ Juvia," Gay Stripper defensively protests. "_Moving on_, I heard from some people that you and Juvia are good friends..."

"Yeah, we're tight I guess," Gajeel nonchalantly replies, unsure of where Gay Stripper is heading with this conversation.

Gay Stripper takes a deep breath and gives him a firm look with his eyes.

"Well, I was wondering, bearing in mind that you and Juvia are 'tight', if you would help me win her over?" he confidently asks.

Gajeel looks at him in complete confusion. "_What_?"

"I asked you if you could help me win over the love of my life—''

"Hell, no. Go find someone else to drag into your crazy shit," Gajeel says as he dismissively waves his hand.

"But you're the perfect person to help me out! You've known Juvia the longest and you know her best, so you could help me learn about the things she likes or dislikes—''

"I already gave you my answer. Don't make me repeat myself," Gajeel gruffly says, his temper rising.

"—which would give me an edge over Gray! Once she sees how compatible she and I are, she'll finally come to her senses and be with me," Gay Stripper continues, ignoring everything that Gajeel had said.

"So you want me to feed you answers about her interests so that you could manipulate her into going out with you?" Gajeel demands.

"No! Of course not! I'm not asking you to help me _manipulate_ her! I'm merely asking you to help me out!" he responds in offense.

"Forget it. I am not getting myself involved in your crazy." He gives Lyon a curious look when he suddenly remembers something Cana said. "Wait. Didn't you give up on her or something?"

"I know I said that but..." Lyon dramatically places a hand on his chest. "I can never keep away from Juvia-chan."

Gajeel rolls his eyes and looks away. "Still not helping you."

"But...but you are her friend right?"

He lifts his shoulders in a short, irritated shrug. He seriously wants Gay Stripper to leave right now; he has completely ruined Gajeel's beer break.

"So you must care for her?"

He uncomfortably shifts in his place as he makes a small grunt.

"Well, assuming that you are in fact, capable of feeling some sort of emotion for a person who happens to be your _closest_ and _oldest_ friend, then surely you must be tired of seeing her pine away for someone who doesn't return her feelings?" Gay Stripper asks him.

"Well...um...maybe," Gajeel mumbles, trying his very best to remain unaffected.

"Don't you think that she deserves someone better? Someone who doesn't treat her like she doesn't exist?"

"Yeah!" he responds with more conviction than he meant to.

"I mean Juvia-chan...er...Juvia is an amazing woman—she's beautiful and kind and smart and sweet. She deserves to be with someone who actually loves her, not waiting for someone who doesn't even feel the same way about her," Gay Stripper says, his voice becoming more and more impassioned with every word.

"Damn right she does!" Gajeel responds as he slams a fist against the countertop.

"And Gray...that bastard doesn't even know how lucky he is! He's always treating Juvia so coldly. And even though it's obvious that he doesn't like her back, he doesn't even bother giving her a _proper answer_! It's clear that he's just stringing her along!"

"Yeah! What a prick!" Gajeel hisses. The more he's listening to Gay Stripper, the more the man is actually starting to make sense. Juvia may be a bit high-strung and okay fine, she does do a ton of shit that makes absolutely no sense sometimes but she's an amazing person and she doesn't deserve to waste her time waiting for an asshole who's never going to reciprocate or give her a proper _clear-cut_ answer. For fuck's sake, she's practically giving every single thing she's got to Stripper and the bastard doesn't even spare her a second glance. It makes him really, really angry because she's his friend and even though he doesn't show or say it that much, he actually cares about her.

"But I'm not like that! I _love_ her. And even though, her responses towards my advances may be..._lukewarm_ as of the moment, at least I am clear about what I feel for her!" Gay Stripper says.

Gajeel looks at him in contemplation. So apparently Gay Stripper is not so gay after all, especially if he has the hots for Juvia. Now that he thinks about it, Not So Gay Stripper and Juvia are actually kind of similar; they both wear blue and have that fur collar thing and they're both direct and open with their feelings and kind of really intense. And Not So Gay Stripper is basically Stripper except that he actually likes Juvia back. Maybe, he should help—_No_.

What the fuck is he thinking?

"My answer's still no," he gruffly says. He'll give it to the Not So Gay Stripper though; the bastard can be pretty sneaky and persuasive. But even though he sort of wishes that Juvia would stop being so hung up on Stripper and actually move on, he respects her feelings. He knows that she really cares about Stripper and not just the shallow, stupid kind of caring either—she full on _loves_ him and shit. He may not agree with her choices but it's still her feelings and her decisions and he doesn't have the right to meddle and tell her that she's got everything all wrong.

Not So Gay Stripper looks thrown. "But...but—''

"Look, I get where you're coming from. I really do. But it's none of my business," he says.

"Just _one_ date. Just please help me get one date with her," Not So Gay Stripper says in a pleading voice.

Gajeel turns away from him and takes a huge gulp from his beer. "Sorry. Can't help you."

Not So Gay Stripper's face twists in disappointment. He slumps against the table and sighs, "It's such a shame though. Because I did have some extra cash to spare and if you had only accepted my offer to assist me, I would have expressed my gratitude by you know...giving you some _monetary_ compensation."

Gajeel stiffens.

"Exactly how much monetary compensation?" Gajeel says, trying to sound casual.

"Oh...about seven thousand jewels," Not So Gay Stripper shrugs.

Seven thousand...Holy fuck_. Seven thousand jewels_. He can't believe that he's actually considering this but seriously. It's seven thousand jewels. He can do a lot of shit with that kind of money—he can even buy himself a new guitar. And okay fine, he knows that he promised himself that he was never going to interfere with her love life and that it's kind of fucked up that he's basically being paid to be Not So Gay Stripper's wingman. But the more he thinks about it, the more he feels like it's actually the best option.

Not So Gay Stripper will probably treat her like a princess if given the chance (hell, from what Gajeel knows, he treats her like a princess _already_) and the two of them actually sort of look good together. And this whole thing will probably be good for her since she'll be able to see that Stripper's not the only guy in the world and that there are tons of other people who are attracted to her or who can love or accept her romantically. In the end, that's all that really matters right? He just wants her to be happy and if he feels like hooking her up with Not So Gay Stripper is what it's going to take, then he's going to do it.

Him getting something in return is just a small, _really small_ thing in the grand scheme of things. The seven thousand grand has absolutely nothing to do with anything at all.

Really, he's doing this all for her benefit.

He straightens up and tries to adopt a professional, business-like tone. "Well, now that I think about it, you do seem like a better match for Juvia..."

Not So Gay Stripper gives him a huge smile. "Glad you could see things my way—''

"But if you want my help, you're doing what I'm telling you. No questions, asked," Gajeel cuts him off.

"But—''

"And I just help you out with one date. _One_. And then you're on your own."

"Fine. But the date has to be successful, otherwise I'm not paying you."

"You're not paying me! You're expressing your gratitude through monetary incentive!" Gajeel says in outrage. It sounds so sleazy and shady when Not So Gay Stripper puts it that way.

"That's basically the same thing!"

"Whatever," he flippantly shrugs. "But if I do get you a date with Juvia, I want half."

"No. You'll get everything if the date ends successfully."

"Half. Or I'm not helping you."

"Fine! Whatever. I'll give you half if she agrees to go on a date with me. But the other half only comes if it ends well."

"Fine with me," Gajeel shrugs. He then narrows his eyes against Not So Gay Stripper's. "But Juvia can't find out about this. She'll kill me."

He nods his head. "Agreed."

A short stretch of silence passes between them as Gajeel internally debates his final decision. If this all goes wrong somehow, then he's pretty sure that Juvia will hate him forever (or for at least three weeks max) and if Pantherlily finds out, he knows that the Exceed will chew him out and never let him hear the end of it. But he figures that he can take the risk; this isn't his first time gambling with high stakes.

"Okay, Byron." Gajeel claps a hand on Lyon's shoulder and says, "You got yourself a deal."

"It's Lyon."

"Of course, I knew that Tyon—''

"_Lyon_."

Gajeel looks away and tries to hide the smirk on his mouth by taking a gulp from his mug of beer. "Ghihi. That's what I said."

It was close enough, anyways.

* * *

He and Lyon meet up the next day in the same pub. He's written down a couple of things that seem relevant on to a scrap piece of paper. He's never usually this responsible but he figures that if he's going to help Lyon get one date with Juvia, he wants to make sure that the bastard actually shows her a good time and not fuck things up. The last thing he needs is Juvia wailing on him about how horrible her date with Lyon was.

Lyon shows up a few minutes later with a notebook and a pen and Gajeel makes a snide comment to him about it. Lyon glares at him and defensively says that he just wants to be prepared. It's sort of lame but at least Gajeel knows that Lyon is dead serious about this whole thing.

"Okay, one, always be nice and polite and shit. Juvia digs that in the guy," Gajeel says, rattling off the first thing on his list.

"I'm always polite to her," Lyon says but he's writing it down anyway.

"Just open doors and pull out the seats for her. All of that gentlemanly stuff. She's the kind of girl who reads all those crazy romance stories so it kind of spills over into how she perceives real life," Gajeel continues. He suddenly remembers that one time Juvia read a book about a couple where the girl dies out of some sort of sickness and she spent one whole week getting check-ups for herself and dragging Stripper along with her. She made Gajeel go to the healers too because he's "her friend and she doesn't want anything to come in between him and Levy." He went but it was mostly just to shut her up.

"I do those things for her without her even asking me to," Lyon says.

"Do you want my help or not?" Gajeel demands. He's really annoyed with this whole I-Know-A-Lot-Shit act. He's practically being hired to dish out info about his friend so the least Lyon can do is to shut up and pay attention to him.

Sensing Gajeel's foul mood, Lyon quickly nods his head and says, "Of course. Of course."

"Okay...next up is...oh right! Music. Here's a list of songs she usually listens to. You can...I don't know...say something like, do you like this band? And she'll get all excited that you actually know who the band is. You having the same taste in music is probably going to win points in your favor." He slides the crinkly paper over to Lyon.

Lyon takes it, his eyes quickly sweeping over every word. "Juvia...certainly has..._interesting_ tastes in music."

"Damn right she does. In fact, she introduced some of the bands to me," Gajeel says in a slightly proud tone.

Lyon's left brow twitches. "Well...er...I just never saw Juvia as a girl who was into this kind of music..."

"So you've _never_ heard of any of the bands I listed down?"

"No, but if Juvia enjoys this kind of music, then I'm going to learn how to enjoy them too," Lyon resolutely declares as he folds the paper up and slips it into his pocket.

Gajeel presses his lips together into a frown and says, "Just make sure you actually...learn the songs well, okay? Juvia's a humongous fangirl so she's going to be able to easily tell if you're just lying to impress her."

He nods his head. "Okay. I'll make sure to study this list with due diligence."

"Great." Gajeel consults his list, his lips curving into a smile when he sees what's next. "Ask her if she plays any instruments. She's a good piano player and she's super proud whenever anyone asks her because it's her one chance to show off without seeming like an obnoxious bitch."

A dreamy look crosses Lyon's face. "Juvia plays the piano? I always knew she was talented."

He starts spacing out much to Gajeel's annoyance.

"Oi! Snap out of it! We still have work to do!" Gajeel barks as he tries to break Lyon out of his dreamy stupor.

"Right," Lyon says quickly snapping back into attention.

"I'm not really sure but I think she speaks French. I heard her talking with Sol once using that language."

"Great! I can speak French!" Lyon excitedly says. He emphatically wrings his hands together. "See? We're practically perfect for each other."

"Yeah, you definitely are," Gajeel mutters. He feels a little like Juvia and Lyon might actually be pretty scary as a couple. They're both intense personalities and he doesn't exactly know if they'll be able to balance each other out once they get together. He then shakes his head because fuck, who cares? If Lyon does manage to pull this off, whatever relationship he'll have with Juvia isn't any of Gajeel's business.

"What's next?" Lyon eagerly asks.

"Don't insult her cooking. She will kill you if you do that. I'm not even joking. Tutu—''

"Tutu?"

"He's our ex-guildmate from Phantom Lord. Anyways, Tutu found out about it. _The hard way_."

"Oh."

"Right. Be nice to kids. She's a sucker for a guy who likes kids." He remembers this one guy from Phantom Lord who had a supreme crush on her. He was a total loser who always had a perpetually runny nose and who always tripped over his own feet but Juvia agreed to go out to dinner with him anyways because he was really nice to his little brother.

"Got it."

"Don't ever mention the rain or allude to her past in any way whatsoever. That topic makes her all iffy and it'll probably sour the conversation between the two of you."

"Noted."

"Don't mention her pink umbrella because it will inevitably lead to a discussion about her parents. And that will just make her upset."

"I never got to ask...what did happen to her parents?" Lyon asks in curiosity.

Gajeel grunts and shifts in his place. "Not my place to tell you."

"Does Gray know about it?" he demands, looking jealous.

"How the fuck should I know?" Gajeel snaps, feeling slightly irritated. He's a little sick of all these unnecessary questions—he wants to wrap this up as quickly as possible and Lyon playing the twenty fucking questions game with him isn't helping.

He looks down at his list and continues, "And oh, whatever you do, don't order anything with string beans for dinner. She absolutely _hates_ them. She actually sticks her tongue out like a little kid whenever she sees 'em."

"No string beans," Lyon mutters as he hastily scribbles it down.

"And if you're going to get her flowers...get her a bouquet of..." He scrunches his brow as he tries to remember what Juvia's favorite kind of flower is. He remembers her yammering about it once, during White Day. _Sunflowers_. It's sunflowers. Right. She was hoping that Gray would give her a bouquet of sunflowers. Stripper instead gave her a box of chocolates (after being coerced by Erza) but Juvia was pretty happy just to get something from him anyways. "...sunflowers."

"I'll get her the most expensive bouquet of sunflowers I can find!" Lyon declares. But then, his shoulders sag slightly and he says, "Although I always figured she would be more of a roses kind of girl—''

"Well, she isn't. And don't be too over the top with the flowers. You'd probably be think that she's into grand displays of emotion given the way she..._acts_. But really, she'll probably just be happy that you thought of giving her something in the first place," Gajeel says.

Lyon gives a solemn nod of his head. "Nothing too fancy. Right."

He then gives another dreamy look before sighing, "I always knew that Juvia was someone who was down to earth."

"Riiight..." Gajeel says, feeling slightly weary with Lyon's tendency to drift out of the conversation. "Anyways, I think that's about it—oh wait. One more thing."

He leans forward and pulls his brows downwards in a threatening scowl. He grabs Lyon by the collar of his shirt and glares at him, his voice gruff and intimidating, "If this somehow works and she does end up liking you...then you better treat her right. Otherwise, you and I will have a very long talk."

Lyon, who's been looking pretty collected, shudders in place. He squelches against the Gajeel's grip before gingerly trying to free himself. "Of course, I will treat her right! You have nothing to worry about!"

Gajeel releases him, feeling mollified. He's just a little worried because Juvia has had a douche of an ex-boyfriend before. His name was Bora and he was a total prick—Gajeel honestly doesn't even know what Juvia saw in him in the first place. But she has the tendency to look at the good things in people, even when there aren't any and sometimes he has to be the one to snap her out of it and make her see that not everyone is nice.

Lyon straightens his back and enthusiastically says, "Great! Do you know where she is now? Because now that I'm well prepared, I can ask her out—''

"Whoa. Hold it," Gajeel gruffly says. "She's way into deep with Strip—I mean Gray. There's no way in hell, she's going to voluntarily agree to go out with you. If you want her to accept your invitation for a date...you're going to have to be a little bit _sneakier_."

* * *

**Author's Note: **After a rather long hiatus from writing Gruvia, I finally found the time to do so! With all the Gruvia feels in the manga, I couldn't help wrangling this fic out in between studying and writing papers. Now that midterm season is over, I should have more time to write more fics. I actually have a couple of fics lined up. I just need to write them down and materialize them.

A couple of people have been messaging me if I ever plan on writing smut for Gruvia. Honestly, I have written something already but it's really crappy and so not sexy and I don't like posting things until I feel like they're actually good enough. So maybe I'll write smut someday but not now. Some people also messaged me about my tumblr page and if I plan on taking drabble requests. I'm still trying to figure tumblr out (because more than anything I use it to look at posts of my different fandoms) but I have finally figured out how to change the theme and add links and all that stuff. So yes, I think I will be taking drabble requests but I'm still relatively new to tumblr so I might not be able to answer those requests right away.

Anyways, this fic is just shameless ridiculousness. After all the drama in recent chapters, I just thought that I would write something nice and light. This is seven chapters long and in case anyone's wondering, I have already finished it (I never upload things I can't finish). The plot is pointless and will cover the span of one, maybe two nights. This is kind of my take on all the debates between the Lvyia-Gruvia ship. I will be uploading one chapter every Friday night.

I hope you guys enjoy reading this! Please review if you have the time. :)


	2. Chapter 2

**2**

* * *

Lyon uncomfortably adjusts the collar of his shirt as the two of them wait at the alleyway across a nearby bakery. Juvia comes here often to buy baking supplies; the woman makes it a point to make something _every day _(something about making sure she won't get rusty). Before they went to the bakery though, he dragged Lyon to her dorm and the two of them made sure to filch whatever was left of her flour supply so that she'll have no choice but to stop by here to get a new pack.

(Don't ask him how they did it, it's a long, _painful_ story—they just did, okay?)

"This doesn't feel right," Lyon says, his cool demeanor fracturing as he anxiously wrings the hem of his shirt.

"Do you want to get a date with her or not?" Gajeel demands, annoyed.

"Of course I do! But this feels so...duplicitous. I can't help but feel that I'm deceiving her," Lyon whines.

"You're paying me to help you _manipulate_ her into going out with you and you're worried about being _duplicitous_?" he irately retorts.

"But—''

"Listen, you hired me to be your wingman and I'm the kind of guy who gets the job done. So stop complaining and get your ass in gear. She'll probably arrive any minute now."

Lyon scowls at him but he folds his arms and nods his head. "Fine."

They wait for a few minutes and Gajeel spends the time chewing on a bar of iron while Lyon paces back and forth. It's kind of annoying and he wants to say something to re-assure Lyon or at least get him to stop. But what's about to go down is kind of a big deal and if Lyon fucks it all up, then all their careful planning will go to shit. So yeah, basically he _should_ worry and _should_ freak out—they only have one shot at getting this right.

(And also, only one shot of him getting seven thousand jewels but that's completely _irrelevant_. He's not doing this for himself. He's doing this for Juvia.)

Juvia finally shows up, this cheery little look on her face as she slips inside the shop. He and Lyon give each other a look and Gajeel shoves him forward, his fingers twitching in anxiety. They have to time this correctly otherwise it will just look weird and Juvia will end up suspecting something.

Lyon peers at the shop window, watching Juvia buy the supplies, taking packs of flour and sugar and cornstarch off the shelves. When, she starts making her way towards the counter, Lyon takes a deep breath and moves across the street, his face tight with tension. Gajeel chews on his iron bar faster, his fingers curling tightly around it. Lyon slowly walks to the door just as Juvia moves outside, the huge bag of flour and baking stuff she's holding in her arms obscuring her vision.

Gajeel tears off one huge chunk from his iron bar. This is it. The moment of truth.

Lyon takes one more step forward. Juvia swings the door open. The door smacks Lyon on the face, propelling him backwards and slamming him against the ground.

"Success!" Gajeel exultantly says as he silently pumps his fist into the air. He can't believe that they actually pulled it off.

"Lyon-sama!" Juvia squeals, looking totally flustered. She carefully places her bag of stuff on the ground before hurrying over towards him. Lyon's still lying against the ground, his eyes half-closed and his mouth twisted into a grimace.

"Juvia is so sorry! She didn't see you!" Juvia wails as she grabs Lyon's elbow and struggles to help him up.

Lyon loudly groans and dramatically places a hand over his head. Gajeel grunts in annoyance. The bastard is really laying it on thick. What did they just discuss? That he should try to act as natural as possible. Juvia's not suspicious by nature but she's not stupid either. She'll still notice if something is off.

"Are you hurt? Do you have a concussion? Oh my god, what if you've broken your head?" Juvia says, her voice becoming more and more frantic. "Are you bleeding from the inside? What if you're dying? You're dying and it's all Juvia's fault! Juvia's killed you!"

Now, she starts speaking more to herself than to Lyon. "Oh god, what if you really do die? Then Juvia will be branded as a murderer! She'll have to leave Fairy Tail and no other guild will want her! Then, she'll spend the rest of her life foraging in the wilderness and everybody will hate her! Just like before! Gray-sama will hate her! And she'll never see him again!"

Her face has gone puce now and she's steadily dissolving into hysterics. She's clutching at her face while simultaneously trying to shake Lyon awake. It's actually kind of funny and he knows that as her friend, he should at least be upset or whatever that Juvia's about to pass out from anxiety. But her imagination tends to go batshit crazy and she sometimes gets worked up over nothing so he's basically kind of used to it.

And besides, this is exactly the kind of reaction he and Lyon wanted to get from her.

See, Gajeel knows that Juvia's into Gray too much to actually agree to whatever invitation Lyon will give her so he figures that the only way they can rope her into a date with Lyon is if she feels guilty enough to agree to it. Juvia's the kind of girl who's super nice and as long as she doesn't suspect you of being a love rival, she generally tries to be as accommodating as possible and tries not to hurt people, even on accident. Pair it up with her insane habit of blowing things way out of proportion and they've basically got a recipe for the perfect guilt-trip. If Lyon actually does his part well and plays his cards right, then Gajeel's pretty sure that Juvia will feel horrible enough to at least _consider_ Lyon's offer.

"No, I'm fine Juvia," Lyon says although he gives a tinny little wheeze. It sounds so fake (seriously, Lyon's like the worst actor ever) but Juvia's freaking out too much to actually notice.

"Should Juvia get the doctor? Or go to the nearest medicine store?" she sputters. "Or carry you all the way to the hospital?"

Lyon sits up and gives her a small, pained smile. "I'm fine Juvia. Honestly. You don't have to worry. You didn't do it on purpose anyways."

"But Juvia knows that you're hurt...she still feels really bad," Juvia says as she helps him up. Lyon sways unsteadily on his feet and Juvia gives another grimace.

"Ahh...don't feel bad, Juvia. It's not your fault. I'm fine. Honestly," Lyon says although he still has that confused, dizzy expression on his face. Gajeel gestures at him to tone it down because shit. He wants to upset Juvia but he doesn't want her to have freaking heart attack.

"Well...if you say so..." Juvia says, uncertain. She bites at her bottom lip and looks at the ground in contemplation before saying, "But you have to let Juvia make it up to you! How about she bakes you a batch of Lyon-bread?"

"Lyon-bread?" Lyon incredulously says.

"It's bread with your face on it. Unless..." Her nose suddenly scrunches up. "...You want bread with Gray-sama's face on it. Although Juvia won't like it, she'll bake you a batch anyways because she's hurt you—''

"I don't want to eat bread with Gray's face on it!" Lyon sputters, completely flummoxed.

"But don't you like Gray-sama—''

"What!? _No_!" Lyon pinches the bridge of his nose and tries to hide his exasperated smile. Gajeel tries to contain his laughter. Fuck, this is funny. "Juvia, I don't want to eat Gray-bread because I _don't_ like Gray."

"Eh? Are you sure?" she asks, completely missing the point. She puffs her chest out in pride. "Because Juvia is the best baker there is in Fiore!"

"Of course, Juvia! I don't doubt your skills in cooking at all! But see..." Lyon squares his shoulders, looks her in the eye and clears her throat. "If you really want to make it up to me..."

"Go on, Lyon-sama! Just ask! Juvia will try to accomplish your request as best as she can!" she enthusiastically prods him.

"Well...if that's the case then...I was wondering if you would like to go out with me?" Lyon hesitantly says.

Juvia immediately pales. She starts twiddling with her thumbs and looking at the ground, speaking in broken stutters. Gajeel tenses because he can tell that she's about to say no or give Lyon some bullshit excuse. He starts flailing his arms, trying to signal Lyon to switch tactics.

"Er...Juvia is very flattered Lyon-sama but see...she's um...busy...washing her hair...and...well, maybe she can make it up to you some other way..."

She trails off into more incoherent babbling.

Lyon quickly backpedals. "Then, not a date, then! Just dinner! That's technically _not_ a date!"

"But Gray-sama—''

"Isn't your boyfriend," Lyon smoothly says, regaining his composure. "So it won't matter if you go on a dinner with me or not."

Juvia bites at her bottom lip and looks at her shoes while Lyon nervously swallows. "Juvia isn't sure—''

She's breaking, Gajeel can tell. She's not entirely on board with the idea but she isn't rejecting it either. He mouths at Lyon, "Go for the kill!" and Lyon gives a small, subtle nod with his head.

"It's going to be at Maceo's," Lyon casually says.

"_Maceo's_?" Juvia says, her eyes widening.

Gajeel's lips curl into a triumphant smile.

He already anticipated the possibility of Juvia saying no, even with the whole guilt-tripping thing so he made sure to throw in a little something extra to ensure that she wouldn't refuse. Maceo's is this fancy restaurant that Juvia has always wanted to go, ever since they moved here from Oak Town. She usually tries to save up or something so she can at least order something (even if it's just an appetizer) but the money's never enough and she always ends up spending on something (usually on Gray-related shit) before she can save up on anything substantial.

It's been christened the most expensive restaurant in the whole of Fiore and it totally deserves its reputation—the place is crazy expensive. Seriously. An appetizer costs one person three month's worth of rent. He doesn't even know why Juvia really wants to go to the place; it's just another one of those weird things she's fixated on, he guesses.

Anyways, Gajeel told Lyon about it and the guy didn't even bat an eyelash. All he said was that he's been to Maceo once or twice and even though he does think that food is way too expensive, he doesn't mind doling out a little cash to make Juvia happy.

"Yes," Lyon nods.

"That place is expensive, Lyon-sama," Juvia says uncertainly.

"I'm a top-class mage in my guild. I don't know if you've heard, but I get paid really, _really_ well," Lyon brags. Gajeel rolls his eyes.

Juvia starts shifting in her place and Gajeel knows that her defenses are cracking. She's slowly warming up to the idea of going out on a date with Lyon.

"Juvia has never been to Maceo's before..."

"It's really a good place. They serve the most delicious foie gras," Lyon presses, trying to keep himself from sounding too pushy.

"Yes...Juvia heard about that. She read about it in a magazine once..." Juvia murmurs. Her eyes are fixed on the ground and she's twisting her fingers at a rapid pace. "Well...Juvia guesses she can—_no_."

She squares her shoulders, sounding more resolute. "Juvia thinks it's very nice of you to offer but she can't accept it. She can't be unfaithful to Gray-sama."

"You two aren't even dating!"

"It doesn't matter. Juvia...Juvia _loves_ Gray-sama and she won't accept advances from another man," Juvia says jutting her chin out. Lyon winces at the word "love."

"But...but I'm not...trying to make advances on you! And I didn't ask you out on a date! I asked you out to dinner!" Lyon quickly says.

Juvia frowns at him. "But isn't that the same thing?"

"No...no. We're having dinner as...as friends," Lyon says, sounding as if it physically pains him to say the word "friends."

"But Gray-sama..."

"Fine, if it bothers you so much, I will make sure that he will never know."

Juvia still looks uncertain.

Gajeel quickly gestures at Lyon to play up the guilt factor again.

"But—''

"Ow! My head! I think I'm having internal bleeding!" Lyon whines.

"Lyon-sama! What can Juvia do to help!? Should she carry you all the way to the nearest hospital? Or give you the Heimlich maneuver—''

(Heimlich maneuver? What?)

"Go to dinner with me Juvia," Lyon dramatically says as he grabs her hand.

"Eh?" Juvia sputters.

"Go to dinner with me...as _friends_," he says with a small sigh.

"Well...it's at Maceo's right?" she asks, a small frisson of excitement on her face.

Lyon nods his head. "Yes."

"And Gray-sama won't ever know?" Gajeel rolls her eyes. Trust Juvia to ask that kind of question—it's almost as if she and Gray are actually dating.

"Yes. I'll make sure of it."

"This is just a dinner. And we're just going as friends," Juvia firmly tells him.

Lyon looks a little miffed at the prospect of "going to dinner as friends" but he gives her a smile anyways and says, "Yes. Of course Juvia, I understand completely."

"Great!" Juvia happily squeals. "When shall we meet?"

"Are you okay with tomorrow night? Ate seven o'clock? I'll pick you up at your dorm," Lyon says.

Juvia scrunches her nose. "But what if other people see us—''

"Stop worrying so much. This is just a _friendly_ dinner, remember?" Lyon says, in a half-joking voice.

"Juvia supposes..."

"So seven o'clock? At your dorm?"

"Okay!" Juvia grabs her shopping bag and gives him one last concerned look. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"With you here Juvia-chan, I'm always okay," Lyon smoothly says.

Juvia flushes a little before walking away, giving him a little wave as she says, "Alright! See you tomorrow, Lyon-sama!"

As she slowly walks away, Lyon turns back to the alleyway and gives Gajeel a thumbs-up.

Gajeel just gives a nonchalant shrug and languidly leans against the wall because fuck it, he can. He's just pulled off the impossible. He got Juvia to momentarily forget Gray (okay, not really) and go on a date with Lyon (fine, a _friendly_ dinner, but it's close enough). Is he the master or what?

As Lyon approaches him with a stupidly happy grin on his face, Gajeel holds his hand out and wiggles his fingers, "You got your date. So pay up."

"It's a friendly dinner," Lyon informs him as if Gajeel doesn't already know.

"It's practically a date."

"Fine," he snaps as he pulls his wallet out and takes out a wad of bills.

Lyon hands it to Gajeel who takes a long sniff from the crisp, crinkly paper.

He gives a little smirk. "I just love the smell of hard earned cash."

* * *

Lyon forces him to meet up at the pub before he goes on his date or friendly dinner or whatever and Gajeel goes even if he doesn't want to because Lyon won't stop bugging him about it. Pantherlily's been asking him about why he's so busy lately but he managed to keep his secret by making some bullshit excuse about the master sending him on a secret mission.

In the pub, he half listens to Lyon spaz for half an hour about his suit, the bouquet of flowers he's bought, the reservations he's made. When Lyon's finally done rambling, Gajeel sends him off and loudly calls out that he wants the rest of the payment by tomorrow as Lyon walks off. Lyon pauses and gives this nervous sort of twitch, saying something about how Gajeel doesn't know for sure that it's going to end well. Gajeel just snorts and rolls his eyes because Lyon's basically being an idiot over nothing.

But still, a few minutes after Lyon leaves, he starts getting a bit worried.

Look, he knows that the whole date will probably go fine—they're going to a fancy, upscale restaurant so what can possibly go wrong? And besides, Juvia's a total sweetheart and she's really patient and stuff so he knows that even if Lyon says something wrong or offensive to her, she'll be all polite about it and won't walk out on him or slap him or something. He tries to relax but he can't, not unless he knows for sure that the date will end well. It's probably nothing but he decides to go to Maceo's anyways to check on how Juvia and Lyon are doing. He was supposed to have a thing with Levy today but he decides to skip it because he only has three thousand five hundred dollars and he really wants the rest of the money.

He heads home and puts on his crisp, white suit and hat before making his way to Maceo's. He's not planning on actually having dinner there but he wants to at least look nice and respectable enough.

When he gets there, he carefully slips inside and immediately heads to a crowded area to avoid being noticed. He knows for a fact that Lyon reserved a table for him and Juvia near the aquarium so when he takes his position, he has no trouble finding them at all. Juvia's wearing this nice, inky black evening dress that's actually pretty modest (Most of her fancy dress usually have plunging necklines. What? They've gone undercover in elite events a couple of times) but it has a slit that goes way beyond her mid-thigh and its pretty form-fitting, clinging on to her like a second skin. Her hair's up in a loose bun and she's not wearing any jewelry except for a slim, silver bracelet with little butterfly charms on her right wrist.

She looks a little stiff but she seems happy enough and she's laughing at whatever Lyon's saying so he figures that she doesn't feel too awkward. She keeps glancing at the bouquet of flowers placed at the side and he knows from the bright look in her eyes that she's happy (and even pleasantly surprised, he bets) that Lyon actually bothered to prepare something for her. Lyon's looking at the menu while he's talking to her and she's smiling and Gajeel thinks that they're okay and actually having a decent time.

A snooty waiter comes over and asks him for his order and he's about to say no and leave when he sees a familiar tuft of black hair from the corner of his eyes. His sits up, immediately alert and when he gets a better look, he feels a stab of panic coursing through him.

Fuck.

It's Stripper. In the restaurant. In a suit. Glaring at Lyon with an intensity that could burn holes through cement.

Great. _Now_ the bastard decides to do something?

He stands up and shoves the annoying, pushy waiter out of the way as he stomps towards Gray. When he gets there, he gives a loud grunt, catching Gray's attention. He irately demands, "What the fuck are you doing here?"

Gray opens his mouth to respond when Gajeel hears another, familiar, even more annoying voice—_Salamander's_. "Gray! We did it!

"We slipped the lacrima into their table!" Bunny Girl says from beside him. She doesn't look too happy to be here and she's got an annoyed look on her face. Wendy is right beside her, Carla perched on her shoulders. Gajeel frowns. He can't believe they dragged Wendy into this.

"Did they notice?" Gray impatiently demands, completely ignoring Gajeel.

Titania comes up from behind Natsu and says, "No, of course not. We were very discreet."

What the fuck? He brought his _friends_?

"Lacrima? What lacrima?" Gajeel says as he desperately tries to control his temper.

"It's a spy gear lacrima Gray bought today. You put the microphone lacrima in the area you want to spy on and keep the earpiece lacrima with you," Happy cheerily explains to him.

"You're _spying_ on Lyon and Juvia?" Gajeel says, completely poleaxed.

Gray looks embarrassed and he ducks his head and avoids Gajeel's gaze before defensively saying, "I'm not spying on them! I'm just looking out for Juvia!"

"Looking out for her? While the hell would you need to do that!? She's a grown woman!" Gajeel rages, completely annoyed. If Gray's here along with his friends then Juvia and Lyon are bound to notice sooner or later and the date will be ruined. And then he won't get the other half of the money. (Not that he cares. This isn't about the money.)

"It's because he liiiiikes her," Happy teasingly interjects.

"Shut it cat!" Gray snaps, flushing.

"Answer my question, Stripper!"

"She's my friend and I just don't want Lyon to take advantage of her!" Gray hotly replies.

"How the hell did you even find about their date!?"

"It's none of your business! And what the hell are _you_ doing here?"

"I just happen to want to enjoy a nice, expensive dinner!"

"As if you can afford it!"

"What? And you can?"

"That suit looks horrible on you!"

"At least I'm wearing clothes!"

"I _am_ wearing clothes!"

"Not now, you aren't!"

"Ack!" Gray says as he hastily tries to gather up his discarded blazer and shirt. Erza and Lucy are busily trying to fix the earpiece lacrima, completely oblivious to their argument. Happy and Natsu are trying to pick out food from the menu.

"Look, you best be getting out of here and leaving Sprinkler and Lyon alone! Or I'll knock your teeth in!" Gajeel snarls as he hauls Gray up in the collar as soon as the man puts his shirt back on.

"Hands off me!"

"Not until you and your friends _leave_!"

"You can't tell me what to do! And why do you care anyways!?"

"Because you're being a douche!"

"You're the one who's being a douche!"

"You wanna go!?"

"I'll go right now!"

"_Quiet_!" Erza screeches as she grabs both of them by the collar and slams them against each other. They both give a pained groan and Gajeel pinches the space in between his brows as he tries to get rid of the throbbing on his forehead.

"Ow! What the fuck, woman!?" Gajeel snaps. Erza can be pretty scary but Gajeel isn't afraid of her. (Most of the time.)

"At the rate you two are going, they are bound to hear us!" she hisses in annoyance. "Listen! Juvia's noticed something already!"

"Did you hear that Lyon-sama? Juvia thinks she heard Gray-sama's voice!" Juvia's voice, lined with static, crackles out of the lacrima.

Lyon sounds annoyed at the mention of Gray's name. "I don't see him anywhere, Juvia. Maybe you heard wrong."

"Juvia would never mistake Gray-sama's voice!" Juvia declares.

"He's not here, Juvia-chan. As if Gray would be able to afford a place like this," Lyon says with a small laugh.

Gray's fingers clench. "That bastard! I could afford to eat here if I wanted to!"

"Lyon-sama shouldn't say things like that about Gray-sama," Juvia passionately says. "Gray-sama earns loads of money. And even if he really can't afford to come here, it doesn't make him any less of a man."

"Ahh...I didn't mean it that way," Lyon hastily says, sensing the turn in Juvia's mood. He gives her a pleading look and carefully takes her hand. "Forget about him Juvia-chan. Come on. Let's enjoy our date."

"Friendly dinner," Juvia corrects.

"Right."

"See? You two should stop talking so loudly! Otherwise they'll hear us and catch on," Erza hisses.

"We wouldn't have to be worried about them hearing us in the first place because you idiots aren't supposed to be here!" Gajeel furiously whispers.

"Well, neither should _you_!" Natsu points out.

"Believe me, I've been trying to dissuade them from continuing with this ridiculous farce," Carla snootily says.

"Same here," Lucy mumbles in a vaguely annoyed voice.

"Oi, oi! Where the hell are the waiters? I'm hungry!" Natsu complains.

"We can't afford any of the food here you idiot!" Lucy hisses as she whacks him from the back of his head.

"What's the matter Gajeel-san? Why do you look upset?" Wendy asks him in concern.

"Yeah? Why do you care so much anyways?" Gray demands, suddenly looking suspicious.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Gajeel says as he looks away.

"Well, we're not leaving," he snaps as he folds his arms.

Gajeel looks at him, feeling more and more rattled. If he doesn't do anything now, then the whole date/friendly dinner thing will go to shit. He can either 1.) leave them alone and hope that everything will work out or 2.) stay here and make sure Gray and his idiot friends don't ruin anything. He squares his shoulders and resolutely says, "Well, so am I—''

"_Quiet_! They're talking!" Erza hisses as she props up the earpiece in the middle of the table. Everyone quickly crowds around it to listen, except for Natsu who's still trying to get one of the waiters to notice him. Despite himself, Gajeel steps closer.

Lyon's crackly, static-ridden voice faintly pulses out of the earpiece. "Do you like the flowers, Juvia-chan? I made sure that the sunflowers are freshly-picked."

"Yes, Juvia thinks it's so nice of you to bring her these."

"I'm guessing that sunflowers are your favorite?"

"Sunflowers? He gave her sunflowers? He's got it all wrong," Gray hisses from under his breath.

"And what would you know about her favorite flower?" Gajeel shoots back.

"She doesn't like sunflowers. She likes lilies," Gray mutters, completely ignoring Gajeel. "_Lilies_."

Gajeel frowns at him. He thinks that he would know if Juvia like lilies. "No she doesn't—''

"Actually, Juvia's favorite flowers are lilies," Juvia's voice crackles out of the speaker.

Gray shoots everyone a triumphant smile.

"How do you know that?" Gajeel asks a little miffed. He thought for sure that the sunflower was Juvia's favorite.

"Doesn't everyone know that?" Gray says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Not everyone," Gajeel mumbles. Apparently Juvia never bothered to tell him, her _best friend_, that she loves lilies.

"What?" Lyon says, flummoxed. "Are you sure?"

"Um...yes."

From where he's standing, Gajeel can see Juvia giving Lyon an odd look.

"Oh. You just seemed like the kind of person who likes sunflowers. That's all," Lyon hastily says.

"Juvia does like sunflowers. But she just likes lilies more." Then she quickly adds, "But please, Lyon-sama, don't think that Juvia doesn't like your gift! She loves it!"

"Okay," Lyon uncertainly replies. He holds the menu up. "Shall we order?"

"Yes but uh...do you mind ordering? Juvia has never been here before and she doesn't know what to pick," Juvia says, sounding a bit embarrassed.

"Of course. Waiter!" Lyon says. A waiter approaches their table.

"What!? I can't believe they're serving them before us!" Natsu yells in outrage.

"_Shh_!" Erza snarls as she bops Natsu on the head. Natsu quickly shuts up and goes back to trying to get one of the waiters' attention.

"We'd like to order some oysters to start and your world-famous seared foie gras. Oh and Juvia, you must try the lamb with minted hummus. It's to die for!" Lyon enthusiastically says.

"Lamb? _Lamb_? Juvia hates the smell of lamb," Gray interjects. Gajeel frowns a little, because he doesn't remember Juvia telling him something about hating the smell of lamb.

Sure enough, Juvia's voice sounds slightly strangled. "Lamb? Well...ugh..."

Lyon plows on, completely ignoring her. "And the porcini risotto. It is a must here at Maceo's. And maybe some white wine."

Natsu groans and slumps against the table. "All this talk of food is making me hungry."

"_Shut up_!" everyone else in the table screeches at him.

"Don't worry, Natsu-san. I'm sure that the waiters will come here soon," Wendy sympathetically tells him.

"That bastard! Lyon's not even listening to her," Gray snaps as he slams a fist on the table. "He doesn't even care about her feelings or what she wants. It's like that time he made that bet without asking for her opinion—"

"Bet? What bet?" Gajeel demands. He doesn't recall Lyon telling him anything about a bet and it sounds like something that's fairly important.

"It was during the Grand Magic Games. Lyon made a stupid bet between me and him that whoever wins gets Juvia in their respective guild—"

"Did you agree to it?" Gajeel snarls, outraged. He can't believe that Not So Gray Stripper didn't tell him about this. This is important information that he deserves to know. Even more, he can't believe that, that asshole would actually bet Juvia as a prize. Juvia isn't an object to be won or wagered. She's a human person with feelings and shit. Plus, Lyon's a grown-ass man so he should be aware that using Juvia in a wager and not considering his feelings is a dick move. And yeah, he kind of knows that he has no right to comment on Lyon's actions, because he's done a lot of pretty stupid things before that are probably worse, but he thinks that, as her friend, he definitely has the right to be pissed.

"Of course not," Gray says, sounding offended. Gajeel looks at him in surprise because it's slightly weird that Stripper would refuse Lyon's challenge. As far as he knows, Gray and Lyon are always in some sort of competition with each other and Gray would rather stab himself in the gut than lose to Lyon. Stripper just doesn't seem like the kind of person to turn down a challenge from Lyon.

Maybe he should call this whole thing off (and not get the rest of the money). Maybe Lyon's a complete douche and he'll treat Juvia like crap.

Or maybe he just really loves her that's he's willing to do whatever he can to get her. What he did was actually kind of romantic in a sense. Sort of. Maybe. Whatever. Juvia does that kind of thing all the time to Gray (Okay, so maybe she hasn't used Gray as wager or completely disregarded his feelings but aside from that, it's almost the same thing. Sort of. Maybe.) and everyone seems to be okay with it. Seriously. The girl's probably willing to do anything to get Gray.

"We made the right decision in spying on them Gray," Erza solemnly says. "We cannot allow Lyon to win over her."

"We are _not_ spying on them. We're looking out for Juvia," Gray insistently says. "And this isn't about Lyon winning Juvia over! This is about making sure that he doesn't take advantage of her!"

"When are the waiters coming?" Natsu groans.

"And for desert..." Lyon says.

"They should get shaved ice, the multi-flavored ones," Gray says, almost as if he's speaking directly to Lyon and Juvia.

"...we should get the mousse!" Lyon finishes. "Are you okay with that, Juvia-chan?"

"Yes. Juvia's okay with it," Juvia says although Gajeel can tell from the inflection of her voice that she's just being polite, more than anything.

"That's it! I can't take it anymore! I need food!" Natsu says. He stands up and hollers, "Waiter—''

"You idiot! _Shut up_!" Erza and Gray snarl as they both pound at him.

Lyon and Juvia momentarily look in their direction but Gajeel quickly diverts their attention by causing one of the waiters to trip in front of them. Waiters immediately come rushing in, obscuring them from view.

"That was close," Lucy sighs in relief.

Gajeel sinks into a chair, grabs a menu and mumbles, "Do they have beer in here? Because if I'm going to make it through tonight, I can't do it sober."

* * *

**Author's Note: **I've already changed the rating, as well as the rating for my other stories. I keep forgetting that curse words constitute a T rating. Thanks to the anon who pointed this out! Anyways, thanks to those who reviewed the first chapter, followed it and added it to their favorites.

Please review if you have the time. I hope you enjoyed reading this!


	3. Chapter 3

**3**

* * *

He takes a small sip from his glass of vodka, trying his very best not to down the whole goddamn thing. One glass cost him like, a fucking head and he's already bought two so he's trying to stretch the whole thing for the rest of the night. It's getting pretty hard though because Natsu's being an ass, Lucy keeps scolding Natsu for being an ass, Carla's whining, Erza's being really scary and Gray keeps on ranting about how Lyon's being a total skeeve, taking advantage of Juvia like that, and how he's doing everything _all wrong_. The only person who's being relatively tolerable right now is Wendy (and okay, maybe he's being a bit biased but whatever).

He seriously needs a beer right now.

(But he can't get one because apparently Maceo's is too fucking fancy for beer.)

The only consolation he has is that Juvia and Lyon genuinely seem to be enjoying themselves. They've talked mostly about their respective guilds and the jobs they've done—its just small talk but it isn't awkward or stilted and Juvia seems to have relaxed enough to not duck her head or break out into a furious blush. In fact, it almost seems as if Lyon and Juvia are close friends who have known each other for years.

Gray, though, is becoming more and more agitated by the second, which is really weird because even though he freaks out every once in a while, he usually manages to keep his emotions in check. Gajeel lightly punches him on the arm and says, "Oi! Stripper! Aren't you going to go now? You got what you came for."

"What are you talking about?" Gray irately demands as he takes a bite from his cheese. A waiter came awhile ago to ask for their orders and the only thing they could afford was the cheese platter and a small plate of bolognese pasta. Natsu ate the whole pasta plate and Lucy and Erza retaliated by whacking him on the head—now they're all just stuck with the stupid cheese platter, which really isn't all that good.

"That's the reason why you're here, right? To look out for Juvia? To make sure that Lyon isn't taking advantage of her?" Gajeel crosses his arms and raises a brow. "Well, it's pretty obvious that Juvia's doing fine and that Lyon _isn't_ trying to take advantage of her. So all of you can leave now."

"We still don't have conclusive proof," Gray stiffly says.

"Look at them! They're laughing together! And talking about guppies or some shit! How is that not conclusive proof?"

"Lyon still could've manipulated Juvia into going out with him. I wouldn't put it past that bastard to do something like that," he replies, his fingers clenching.

"Does it look as if she was manipulated into coming here? It's pretty obvious that she's here because she _wants_ to be here," Gajeel pointedly says.

And okay fine, maybe it's not _exactly_ true because Lyon did technically manipulate Juvia into going out with him (with Gajeel's help) but it doesn't really matter does it? Juvia basically said yes anyways, out of her own free will and it's not as if he and Lyon hogtied her and wouldn't let her go until she said it. They just secretly _prodded_ her into giving the answer they wanted, which isn't exactly, technically manipulating. So there.

"I still don't buy it. Something's not right, I can feel it," Gray mutters as he absentmindedly toys with a wedge of cheese.

"What's with you?"

"What?"

"Why the fuck are you so determined for this date to go wrong?"

"That's not what I want!" Gray defensively sputters.

"You're eavesdropping on their conversation and you won't leave them alone!" A realization suddenly dawns on Gajeel. "I can't believe you."

"What?"

"You're mad that for once. Juvia actually isn't paying attention to you!"

"What!? No!" Gray snaps.

"You're a sick bastard, you know that? You just like stringing her along don't you? You like having all the attention she gives you, don't you? And the moment she finds someone else, you try and ruin it for her! " His voice is becoming more and more impassioned with every word. He's feeling extremely angry because Gray has no right, _no right at all_ to act this way. Gajeel's not exactly a model friend, but damn it, he tries and he cares and this is one of the things that he absolutely cannot just take lying down. "Is she supposed to pine after you? She deserves to be happy and she deserves a chance at an _actual_ relationship!"

"What...I'm not...I would never..." Gray mumbles, his words stumbling against each other as he tries to articulate what he's saying.

A flash of light suddenly envelops Erza and she emerges a millisecond later, with a sword clasped in her hand. She points it at Gajeel and growls, "I don't like the way you're talking to Gray!"

"Well...it's true," Gajeel mumbles as he tries to edge away from Erza. (He's not afraid of her, okay? He's just hyper-aware of how pointy her sword is.)

"I'm not...I'm not stringing...I'm not trying to...I'm not like that!" Gray says, his cheeks tainting red.

"Seems to me like you are."

"We're all just concerned for Juvia," Erza says. She narrows her eyes against Gajeel's. "Your comments were completely uncalled for. Apologize!"

"I will not!" Gajeel snaps, though he's starting to feel a little queasy at how close her blade is to his throat, even if he won't admit it.

"Apologize or I will run this blade right through you!"

"Don't threaten me!"

"I don't need you to defend me, Erza!" Gray mumbles.

Erza rounds up on him with furious eyes. "I'm trying to defend your honor and this is how you repay me!?"

Gray hastily shakes his head. "No, of course not—''

"Put that sword away, will you? They're going to see us!" Gajeel hisses in panic. They're at a portion in the restaurant that's mostly obscured by statues and fountains but they've still got a good view of Lyon and Juvia. Gajeel knows that the two won't see them unless they look really close or turn their heads towards a specific direction but he still doesn't want to risk it.

Erza haughtily lifts her chin up. "Don't tell me what to do—''

"Guys!" Lucy interjects.

"_What_!?" they say, annoyed at being interrupted.

Lucy gives them this small pout as she folds her arms. "I'm just trying to redirect your focus back at the situation on hand. We're supposed to be spying on Juvia and Lyon, remember?"

Gray's cheeks turn into an even darker shade of red. "We're _not_ spying on them! We're looking out for Juvia!"

"Anyways," Lucy says, ignoring Gray's comment. She excitedly gestures at the speaker. "Even though I still say we should our own business—''

Gajeel sighs and emphatically says, "That's what I've been trying to say—''

"—I think you guys should know that Juvia and Lyon are hitting it off!" Lucy finishes.

"What!?" Gray says, an unreadable expression on his face. It looks a little bit like panic but Gajeel can't really tell.

"It's true Gray-san. Right now, Lyon's speaking to Juvia in French!" Wendy says as she folds her hands below her chin and gives a slightly dreamy look. "It's so _romantic_."

"Romantic?" Gray says, his voice lined with slight outrage.

"Shh!" Erza hisses as she leans in closer towards the speaker.

"Tu es tres belle," Lyon's voice cackles over the speaker. From where they are sitting, they can see Lyon leaning forward and lightly touching Juvia's wrist.

Juvia flushes and she replies, "Merci."

"French? Lyon speaks French?" Gray says in equal parts of dismay and disbelief.

"Je ne savais pas que tu parlais français," Juvia continues, a vaguely impressed look in her eyes.

"J'étudie le français depuis trois ans," Lyon says, a slightly smug smile on his lips.

"Ouah !" Juvia says with a small laugh, looking clearly delighted.

"What? What are they saying?" Gray frantically says as he turns to look at Lucy.

"Juvia asked Lyon about how he knows how to speak French and he replied that he's been studying for three years," Lucy quickly translates.

Gray slumps in his seat, a despondent look on his face. "Lyon was always the more cultured one between the two of us..."

"I'm sure that it won't matter to Juvia or not if you speak French, Gray-san," Wendy kindly tells him.

"Still doesn't stop the bastard from being better than me at something. Yet _again_," Gray mutters. Gajeel frowns at him, a bit confused with Gray's comment. Yeah, Lyon was better at him than a lot of things but he thought that Gray seemed pretty confident despite that and it never really seemed to bother him.

"This is unacceptable. Juvia is falling for all of Lyon's tricks," Erza says as she slams a fist against the table. "We must do something!"

"Can't we just go home now? I'm bored and you guys won't let me eat any of the cheese," Natsu whines, completely missing the point of the conversation.

"We can't leave yet because we haven't finished what we came for!" Erza thunders, giving Natsu an acidic look.

"Which is?"

"To sabotage Lyon and Juvia's date," Erza says in a matter of fact voice.

"What? Sabotage?" Gajeel says in alarm.

"You're taking this way too seriously," Happy comments.

"I agree. I refuse to participate in whatever debauchery you have planned," Carla interjects.

"I cannot allow Juvia to fall for Lyon when she is obviously meant for Gray," Erza declares, a completely serious expression on her face.

Gray flushes and defensively protests, "Now wait a minute, Juvia and I aren't—''

"Well, why didn't you just say so?" Natsu says, standing up and pulling Lucy along with him.

"Hey! What-What are you doing?" Lucy demands as Natsu cracks his knuckles before dragging her off somewhere.

"_Sabotage_," Natsu evilly says.

Fuck, no.

Gajeel gets up and tries to follow them, his stomach heaving with nerves. He doesn't like the look on Natsu's face and he just knows that some awful shit is about to happen. Natsu and Lucy are darting past the waiters and the stupid marble statues and fountains, having at least the good sense to make sure that Juvia and Lyon don't see them. Lucy keeps trying to protest but as they continue walking, she starts quieting herself, a resigned look on her face. Gajeel tries to catch up with them as best as he can but he's having a really hard time doing so, since waiters keep stopping him and asking him if he needs anything at every goddamn turn. When he finally gets a good view of them, he pales.

Natsu has somehow managed to procure a hat for himself, a ridiculously heavy feather boa for Lucy and a pair of sunglasses for both of them. Natsu is tucking all his pink hair into the hat while Lucy trying to wrap the boa around her neck, obscuring a good portion of her face.

"What the fuck?" Gajeel hisses.

Natsu perches the sunglasses on his nose and gives him a thumbs up. He takes Lucy by the hand and quickly pulls her forward, towards Lyon and Juvia 's table.

Fuck.

Those idiots.

Do they actually think that Juvia and Lyon are stupid enough to fall for their disguises?

He makes a move to step forward but he stops himself at the last minute, because unlike Natsu and Lucy, he doesn't have _any_ disguise. Juvia's bound to notice him if he moves a little too close. He's whipping his head around, trying to figure out a way to stop whatever it is that Natsu and Lucy are planning on doing but nothing comes.

The two of them are slowly ambling towards the table, hands linked, ridiculous grins plastered on their faces. They're talking with each other too although he can't hear what they're saying. All he knows is that they're doing it with the most ridiculous accents.

A waiter carrying a hot bowl of soup is heading from the opposite direction.

Gajeel's eyes widen when he realizes what they are planning to do.

Lyon says something to Juvia, leans forward and makes a move to take her hand. Juvia smiles at him but a slight look of nervousness passes over her face.

Before Lyon can grasp Juvia's hand however, Natsu and Lucy crash into the waiter carrying the soup, causing him to drop all of it contents on Juvia's lap.

"Fuck!" Lyon snaps as some of the hot soup scalds his hands.

"Lyon-sama! Are you alright!?" Juvia says, concerned.

"Yes, yes! I'm fine. But what about you? Oh no, the soup has spilled all over your dress," Lyon says.

Juvia gives a breezy smile. "Juvia is fine. And it only spilled on the front."

"You idiot!" Lyon snarls, directing his anger at the waiter who's busily bowing and proffering apologies. Lucy and Natsu are slowly starting to edge away, trying to be discreet as possible as they discard the feather boa, hat and sunglasses. "How can you be so clumsy!"

"I'm so sorry! It was an accident!" the waiter pleadingly says. "This couple crashed into me and..."

He turns to side and sees that Natsu and Lucy have completely disappeared.

"What couple?" Lyon demands. He balls his fists up and makes a move to stand. "Accident? Don't make excuses! You've ruined Juvia's dress and you could've seriously hurt her—''

"Lyon-sama, please don't talk to him that way! It was only an accident! Juvia is sure he didn't mean it," Juvia calmly says as she places a hand on his chest and tries to force him to sit down.

"I'm going to be speaking with your manager about this!''

"Juvia is fine, Lyon-sama. Please don't be angry," she soothingly tells him. She looks a little annoyed though and Gajeel can tell that having hot soup dropped on her lap has slightly irritated her. But she's polite, almost too polite to a fault, so he knows that she'll act all gracious about it and not cause a scene. "And anyways, it's not a big deal. Juvia will just go to the comfort room and dab at it with tissues."

"But Juvia—''

"It's fine, Lyon-sama," she says, her eyes hardening and her voice taking on a firm, rough edge. Lyon swallows and gives her a small sheepish smile as he hastily nods his head.

"Of course, Juvia-chan."

"Great." She stands up, faces the waiter and kindly tells him, "It's alright. We won't tell your manager."

Then, she turns to Lyon and tucks a few stray tendrils of hair behind her ear. "Juvia will just go to the comfort room for a while, Lyon-sama. She won't be gone long."

As she walks away, Lyon slumps in his seat and moans, his hands carding through his hair in frustration.

Gajeel just pinches the bridge of his nose and mutters, "Great. The appetizer hasn't even been served yet and already those assholes have managed to ruined their dinner."

* * *

"What the fuck did you just do!?" Gray hisses as soon as Natsu and Lucy return to the table. Gajeel's trailing behind them but he's too busy trying to figure out a way to salvage this situation before it gets completely out of hand. Natsu or Erza might do something else and he wants to make sure that he'll stop them before they can try.

"_Sabotage_," Natsu says as he lifts his shoulders in a small shrug. He pulls up a chair and gestures at Lucy to sit down before taking a seat himself. He gives Lucy an impish grin and says in a faux-cowboy accent, "We didn't mean to do it now, did we darlin'?"

"No, of course not love," Lucy says in a fake British accent. Gajeel raises his brows at her because it's pretty weird that she's doing a British accent when Natsu's doing a cowboy one.

Lucy catches his look and says, "What? British accents are cooler. And I refuse to do something as hokey as a cowboy accent."

"Cowboy accents aren't hokey!" Natsu protests.

"Yes, they are—''

"_Idiots_!" Gray snaps. There's an intense, angry look in his eyes and his fingers are balled into fists. Lucy's eyes go all wide and she shrinks back a little as Gray angrily shakes. "That was hot soup you got the waiter to spill on her! _Hot soup_! She could've been seriously hurt!"

Lucy flinches before defensively saying, "I didn't want to do it but Natsu made me."

Natsu rolls his eyes and dismissively waves his hand, "Relax, ice princess. Of course the soup wouldn't hurt her. She's made out of water and she's been boiling before. _Literally_. Me and Luce—''

"Don't drag me into this," Lucy savagely interjects.

"—knew that she could take it," Natsu finishes.

"But still," Gray insistently says, the worried look never leaving his eyes. Gajeel gives him a small look because it's a little weird that he's so concerned and protective about Juvia. He thinks that it's the first time he's ever seen Gray actually caring about her and stuff, more than what a regular friend should at least. Well, what he means is that, he's Juvia's _friend_ and he's not freaking out about her being splashed with hot soup.

(What? She's badass. She can take it.)

"I think you're overreacting. I'm sure that the soup wasn't even that hot," Erza calmly interjects.

"It was _steaming_!" Gray says.

"If someone dropped hot soup on me, I wouldn't even flinch," Erza continues as she twirls her martini in her hand.

"That's because you're incapable of flinching! Nothing literally ever hurts you!" Gray retorts.

"Stop whining, Droopy Eyes! We got the job done didn't we?" Natsu says.

"I didn't ask you to do anything!"

"So you didn't want us to keep Lyon from holding her hand?"

Gray momentarily pauses from his growing tirade and says, "Lyon was about to hold her hand?"

"Damn right, he was!"

Gray scowls and quickly remembers their entire argument. He folds his arms and snaps, "Still doesn't change the fact that you practically scalded her!"

"I didn't 'scald' her! The waiter did!"

"But you made the waiter trip!"

"Only so Lucy and I could help you! Because apparently you're not man enough to keep your woman!"

Gray's eyes widen and it takes him a few minutes before he manages to sputter out a response, "Juvia is not my woman!"

Natsu's brows pull together in confusion. "Wait—what? So if she isn't your woman, then what the hell are you doing here?"

"That's the question I've been asking since the beginning," Carla mutters in annoyance.

"It's because Gray liiiiiikes her," Happy says in a sing-song voice.

Everybody ignores Happy.

"You know what! Stop trying to divert the topic!" Gray says, in a last ditch effort to avoid answering Natsu's question.

"I don't get why you're being such a prick! You should be thanking me!"

"I don't need to thank you for anything!"

"You wanna go Popsicle Breath?"

"I'll go right now, Flame Brain—''

"Gajeel, what are you doing here?" a solemn, deep voice suddenly cuts through their argument. Gajeel pales when he realizes who it is—he looks up and sees Pantherlily marching towards him, a suspicious look on his face. Gajeel opens his mouth to respond but then he sees Cana and Levy walking from behind Pantherlily and his brain just fucking shuts down.

Shit.

Shit.

What the fuck is with all these people?

"Gajeel," Levy says, an accusatory look in her eyes. She's wearing this amazing yellow dress with skinny straps that really shows off her ass (What? He's got eyes. He's not blind. And he's allowed to look. And appreciate.) and her petite figure. "What are you doing here? You said that the reason why you couldn't help me unpack some of my books was because you had to go on a secret mission for the master."

"Oh well...ugh..."

"This doesn't seem to be the sort of place for a secret mission," Pantherlily says as he folds his tiny little arms.

Gajeel looks away because if there's one thing he's learned over the past few years, it's that he can never, _ever_ look at Pantherlily in the eye and actually, lie—he ends up breaking eventually. Pantherlily will look at him with this stern, no-nonsense, no-time-for-bullshit expression and Gajeel just ends up spitting everything out. He swears that the cat has like, a magical pair of eyes or something. It's super annoying.

"Well, what are you, Shrimp and Cana doing here?" Gajeel counters, trying to avoid the question.

Cana gestures at one of the waiters to pull more chairs in the table before placing a hand on Gray's shoulder and saying, "We could say the same thing for you. We're just here to see if the date goes well and if Lyon will actually manage to win Juvia over."

"Why would you want to know that?" Gray demands.

"The whole guild's making bets if whether Juvia will end up liking Lyon after their date. Me and Levy are just here to see the results so that we can go back and tell everyone," Cana breezily says as she grabs the chair the waiter hands to her.

"I'm just here because Gajeel _cancelled_ on our plans and I had nothing to do," Levy pointedly says as she glares at Gajeel.

"How the fuck do all of you know about Lyon and Juvia's date anyway?" Gajeel demands, still trying to avoid Levy and Pantherlily's questioning gaze. Gajeel made sure to tell Lyon that he shouldn't, under any circumstances, tell anyone about the date. Not even his stupid friends from his lame-ass guild.

"Are you kidding me? Everybody knows about it. It's the talk of the town!" Cana enthusiastically says as she starts rifling through the menu. "Hey, is there any beer in here?"

"I can't believe you're making this whole affair into a bet," Gray says, completely incensed.

"I agree. Relationships are not things to be taken lightly," Erza says, as she crosses her legs and laces her fingers on top of her knees.

"What's the big deal? It's just for fun. Besides, everyone in the guild can see that you've got it so bad for her. They think you're finally going to snap by tonight and ask her out. Unless of course, Lyon manages to impress her," Cana blithely says. She gives Gray a wicked, little look. "What's the matter, Gray? Are you scared that Juvia's gonna pick Lyon and go on a second date with him by the end of the night?"

"No!" Gray quickly says.

"Then why are you guys here, huh?" Cana slyly asks as she tries to hide the smirk on her face. Then, a thought suddenly comes to her and she leans forward and stabs Gray's chest with her finger. "Oi, oi! You guys better not be here because you plan on sabotaging their date or something!"

Natsu gives an impish grin and gives a thumbs up. "We already did—''

Gray punches him on the ribs before he can continue and quickly says, "We're not here because we're looking to sabotage Lyon and Juvia's date! We're here because we're trying to look out for her!"

"Sure. Whatever Gray," Cana disbelievingly says.

"Forgive me for asking but why would you need to do that? Juvia is a grown woman, yes?" Pantherlily says. "She certainly doesn't need a keeper. Or _keepers_, for that matter."

"Well...she is...but we're her friends and..." Gray says as he tries to keep himself from stuttering. "It doesn't matter! You guys shouldn't be here!"

"We have every right to be here," Cana says as she picks up one of the cheese wedges from the plate. "It's a free country."

"Don't worry Gray. I bet on you, if that makes you feel better," Levy comfortingly tells him.

"Well, I didn't," Cana snorts.

Everyone stares at her.

She gives all of them a blank look. "What? Lyon is hot."

"And I'm not?" Gray asks in offense.

"Guys? I think you should keep it down. I think Lyon-san knows that something is up," Wendy interjects.

"You know, you still haven't answered our question, Gajeel," Pantherlily comments.

"Yeah, Gajeel," Levy says as she folds her arms and gives him a stern look. Gray tears his attention away from Cana and looks at him, an intensely suspicious expression etched on his face.

"Er..." Gajeel nervously swallows.

"Juvia's back!" Lucy announces.

Everyone immediately crowds around the speaker. Gajeel breathes a sigh of relief, happy to be safe for now. He knows that Pantherlily won't let it go and that he may have offended Levy or whatever for cancelling their thing so that he can check up on Juvia and Lyon but at least everyone's more interested in listening to the speaker. It's probably not going to last long but at least he can buy himself some time so that he can think up of a reasonable excuse.

"Oh man, you guys even bought a speaker!" Cana says, a delighted look on her face. She steals Gajeel's glass of wine and downs everything else in it in one gulp before shooting everyone impish smirks. "This is going to be so much fun."


	4. Chapter 4

**4**

* * *

Pantherlily and Levy don't bug him about his "secret" mission which is great, really. Everyone's too busy listening to Lyon and Juvia's conversation so nobody really had the time discuss what the fuck they were all doing here. Cana tried to once, by asking Gray for the millionth time why he's spying on Juvia and Lyon but some asshole waiter interrupted her before Gray can answer, saying something about how they all can't stay here if they're not going to order any more. Erza locked that shit down by threatening to disembowel him if he doesn't leave them alone. Nobody's bothered them since then and after Cana managed to smuggle some beer from the pub a few blocks down, they've pretty much spent the rest of the time eavesdropping, drinking and trying to discreetly look at Lyon and Juvia without the two noticing.

The waiters have already served Lyon and Juvia the appetizers and so far, the only things they've talked about is how delicious the oysters are. It's kind of boring and lame and he sort of zones out about halfway through. Juvia at least seems to be having a fun time though and she genuinely looks as if she's enjoying spending time, so that's definitely a plus. All he really has to do is to make sure that everything goes smoothly up until dessert is served and then he can leave and get the rest of the money by tomorrow.

As soon as the foie gras gets served, Lyon dabs at his chin his napkin before saying, "You know, I was just thinking about this song that I couldn't get out of my head."

"What song?" Juvia pleasantly asks him as she spears a slab of duck liver with her fork.

"Oh you know..." Lyon casually shrugs. "You Only Live Once by The Strokes."

Juvia gives a small, delighted squeal before saying, "Lyon-sama listens to The Strokes!?"

"Yes. I think that Julian Casablanca is a genius," Lyon declares as he gives an emphatic nod with his head.

Gajeel can tell that Juvia's impressed and he gives a satisfied little smirk because Lyon's done his homework well. Which is good because Juvia knows anything and everything there is to know about the Strokes. When Juvia becomes a fangirl of something, she _commits_.

And okay, he gets that it's kind of a shitty thing for Lyon to pretend as if he actually listens to these kinds of bands and manipulate her into thinking that they have the same taste in music. But people lie on the first date anyways so it's not really a big deal. That's the entire point of going on a first date, isn't it? You tell the other person shit you don't really mean so that they'll go out with you a _second_ time. It's practically like, a rule or something.

Gray frowns a little and says, "She likes the demo version of that song better though."

Gajeel gives Gray a look because he didn't think that anyone knew that but him. It's kind of hard not to, especially when Juvia gets started on one of her crazy-ass fan-rants.

Gray shrugs and says, "What? Doesn't everyone know that?"

"Shh! I can't hear what they're saying!" Cana hisses as she takes a swig from her beer.

"Juvia thinks so too. He has such an amazing voice," Juvia's voice cackles over the speaker. "But she thinks that the demo version is better."

"The demo what..." Lyon says in a slightly confused voice.

Shit.

_Shit_.

So apparently, Lyon didn't do his homework well enough.

"The demo version...I'll Try Anything Once?" Juvia says, her brows suddenly pinching together. "It's never been officially released but every single Strokes fan knows about the demo version."

"Er...right! The demo version! Of course I know about the demo version!" Lyon says quickly regaining his confidence. There's a nervous look in his eyes though and Gajeel can tell that the idiot still has no fucking clue what the demo version is.

"Juvia thinks that it really shows what a beautiful voice Julian Casablanca has. People who are new to listening to The Strokes usually think that he has a drony voice," Juvia says as a slightly dreamy look maps across her featuresher eyes.

"Oh, right! I think so too! It's like Judgment Day by Iron Maiden, right? An excellent song that didn't deserve to be cut from their X-Factor album," Lyon says, quickly regaining his footing. Gajeel breathes a sigh of relief. It was a close call but he's glad that Lyon at least had the presence of mind to divert Juvia's attention to another topic.

Another impressed look crosses Juvia's face. "You listen to Iron Maiden?"

"I love them," Lyon declares.

"Juvia didn't think you listened to these kinds of bands," Juvia says, as she gives an amazed, little shake with her head.

"He doesn't! He _hates_ listening to that kind of music! The guitar riffs always makes his ears hurt!" Gray hisses, an outraged look in his eyes. "It's obvious that he's somehow been spying on her and memorizing her song choices!"

"Or perhaps he actually does share her taste in music. It's certainly not improbable," Carla nonchalantly says.

"Whatever the case may be, the situation is getting out of hand. We must interfere," Erza declares as her fist descends against the table.

"Oi! No butting into their date!" Cana says as she wags a finger at Erza.

"We never agreed to such a deal," Erza says, her lips folding into a small frown.

"The Drunk is right. You guys have no right to interfere with their date," Gajeel fiercely says. Well, neither does he, but he just _helped_ Lyon get a date with Juvia which isn't _exactly_ interfering.

Gray's not saying anything but there's this pained look on his face and he looks as if he wants to argue and say something. But he keeps his mouth shut and continues to look at Lyon and Juvia anyways, his fingers clenched into fists and his jaw, tight and hard. He seriously looks as if he's about to smash something.

"Well, I'm not doing anything anymore since Popsicle Breath over here thanked my previous efforts by being such a little bitch," Natsu drawls as he leans back against his chair.

"Very well. If you won't do anything, then _I_ will," Erza declares.

"Oi! Seriously! Leave them alone!" Gajeel snaps, sounding way too personally invested into this whole thing more than he meant to.

"Don't you dare fuck things up! I've got a hundred jewels on the line!" Cana savagely says as she tries to keep Erza from standing up by grabbing her wrist.

Erza ignores all of them and stands up, her eyes set with a steely look that makes Gajeel's skin crawl. Her back is ramrod straight and even though she's wearing a fancy red dress, it almost looks as if she's got her armor on. Gray says nothing, although there's this gleam in his eyes and Gajeel can tell that the bastard actually _wants_ Erza to intervene and get involved. He starts feeling angry all over again because Gray's being such a douche and he can't believe that he's trying to ruin Juvia's date with Lyon, just because he's mad or whatever that Juvia isn't fawning over him for once.

Erza pulls aside one of the waiters and asks, "Where's the kitchen?"

"Erm..." the waiter gives her a terrified look.

Erza glares at him although her voice sounds relatively calm. "_Where is the kitchen?"_

"O-Over there, ma'am," the waiter sputters, thoroughly terrified.

"Lead me to it," Erza demands.

Gajeel stands up and tries to stop her, "Now wait just a minute—''

"Do not try and stop me," Erza tells him before marching off with the waiter in tow.

"You better just sit down, Gajeel. Erza isn't someone you want to mess with," Levy tells him.

"I'm not afraid of Erza," Gajeel snorts.

Levy gives him a patronizing smirk. "Sure, you aren't."

Gajeel scowls in return.

"We've got to do something!" Cana frantically tells Gajeel as she takes several more swigs from her beer. "We gotta make sure that Team Lyon wins!"

"Team Lyon?" Lucy says, bemused.

"That's what this whole thing is about, isn't it?" Cana says, her voice slowly starting to slur.

Gray flushes and says, "It isn't about—''

"Hey, Wendy which team are you on?" Cana says, ignoring Gray.

"Gray-san's of course," Wendy sweetly says.

"This isn't a competition! There aren't any teams!" Gray defensively protests.

"So you aren't trying to compete with Lyon for Juvia?"

"N-No!"

Cana says something back to him and the two of them get into an argument.

Pantherlily clears his throat and gives Gajeel a pointed look. "You know, Gajeel you still haven't answered my question."

"Or mine," Levy says, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

Gajeel nervously adjusts his collar. "Ugh...yes...well I was about to answer obviously—oh look, Erza's back!"

Erza's walking towards them, a smug smile on her lips. She takes a seat and crosses her arms as everyone looks at her expectantly. Gajeel just sighs in relief, happy to have gotten out of answering Levy and Pantherlily's questions.

"So...what did you do?" Lucy asks her.

"Just watch," Erza says as she jerks her head in the direction of Juvia and Lyon's table. A waiter is serving the lamb and as he sets it on the table, Lyon quickly cuts a piece off for himself. He offers a slab to Juvia who shakes her head and politely declines.

"Juvia doesn't like lamb, yes?" Erza says to no one in particular.

"What the fuck did you do?" Gajeel says in horror. He has a feeling that he knows but he doesn't even want to think about it.

Lyon takes a bite out of the lamb and continues to talk to Juvia about music. The conversation goes on normally for a few more seconds and everyone just stares at Juvia and Lyon, waiting. Then, Lyon's face suddenly turns into a sickly shade of green and he clamps a hand over his mouth. He stands up and wraps an arm around his stomach, his body contorting in pain.

"Lyon-sama! What's wrong!?" Juvia says in alarm.

"My stomach..." Lyon mumbles through his muffled mouth. He suddenly stands up and takes off into the direction of the comfort room.

"Lyon-sama!" Juvia calls after him.

Everyone turns to look at Erza, Gray looking happy and Gajeel and Cana looking supremely pissed. She gives a small shrug, "I may have put something in Lyon's food and _requested_ the waiters not to tell anyone so that Juvia will be disgusted by Lyon's puking."

"Lyon-sama! Wait! Juvia's coming to help you!" Juvia says as she stands up and hurries after him.

Gajeel stops feeling so annoyed and Cana leans back and gives a short, smug laugh. She raises her beer to Erza and slurs, "Was that part of your plan?"

* * *

Lyon shows up several minutes later looking better but he's still clutching at his stomach. Juvia's right behind him and she's got what looks like a warm towel in one hand and a glass of water in the other. A bunch of waiters are circling them and trying to apologize but nobody's owning up to the fact that Erza "requested" them to put something in Lyon's food. Gajeel figures that even though Lyon looks crazy-scary right now with his puce-red face and furious eyes, all the waiters probably find Erza even scarier.

When Lyon takes his seat, Juvia moves her chair closer to him so that she's sitting right next to him. She gently wipes his forehead with the towel and starts rubbing soothing circles on his back.

"Bet you didn't think that would happen, huh Erza?" Cana says, her eyes slightly bleary from the alcohol. She clumsily pumps a fist into the air and holds her hand up for Gajeel to high-five. "Whoo! Go Team Lyon!"

"We are not calling ourselves Team Lyon," Gajeel mumbles because he's seriously not going to agree to something that sounds so lame.

"Great job, Erza. You just made everything worse," Natsu says as he leans forward and toys around with his beer a little.

"That's impossible! I planned this out perfectly," Erza says, a confused look mapping across her features. "Juvia was supposed to be grossed out with him puking!"

"Yeah, well it's going to take a lot more than someone puking to drive Juvia away. She's nice like that," Gray comments. Even though he looks pissed that Juvia's being really touchy-feely with Lyon right now, there's this soft, subtle look in his eyes, almost as if he thinks that she's the sweetest girl in the world and that he actually, you know, loves her for that.

"Should we leave, Lyon-sama?" Juvia says in concern.

"No...don't be ridiculous, Juvia-chan! You haven't even tried the risotto yet," Lyon says as he gulps the water. It's obvious that he doesn't want to cut their date short so Gajeel has to give him props for at least being man enough to take a little food poisoning.

"But—''

"I'm fine. Don't worry about it. I probably...just had an allergic reaction to something in the food," Lyon hastily says. He sits up and winces, quickly turning away to keep Juvia from seeing his pained expression.

"Maybe we should complain to the manager, after all!" Juvia's eyes suddenly widen with intensity and she starts flailing her arms around. "Or what if...what if it wasn't an allergic reaction? What if someone really did try to poison you!? Oh my god, what if we have an assassin in our midst!? We have to get you to a doctor—''

"Juvia, I'm fine. Honestly," Lyon gently interrupts, looking slightly irritated with Juvia's high-strung rants. Gajeel breathes a sigh of relief because for all her crazy imagination-spiels, Juvia's actually not so far off the mark with her whole assassin theory. Erza wasn't trying to kill Lyon, obviously, but she did still try to _poison_ him.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Juvia asks.

"Of course! I promised you a dinner at Maceo's didn't I? And we're not leaving until we finish dessert," Lyon resolutely says.

"Well, as long as you're sure—''

A loud whine of static suddenly cuts off whatever Juvia is about to say next. The speaker starts emitting this buzzing sound while Lyon and Juvia's voices echo out of it in broken, choppy sounds. It gives three more, low-pitched whines before sputtering out of life.

"No! What's wrong with it!?" Erza moans as she grabs the speaker and starts shaking it.

"Oi! Oi! Don't do that! That cost me thirteen thousand jewels!" Gray protests as he tries to get the speaker back. Gajeel scrunches his brow up because _fuck_—Stripper must be taking this whole sabotage-Juvia-and-Lyon's-date thing pretty _seriously_ if he spent thirteen thousand jewels on faulty-ass spy gear.

"And to think, things were just getting good," Cana mumbles as she pops open another bottle of beer with her fork.

"Erza! Stop it! You're going to break it!" Gray furiously says.

"It's already broken! I'm trying to fix it—''

"Give it back—''

"Stop bothering me—''

Gajeel sighs and slumps against the table, completely ignoring their argument. It's a good thing that the speaker's dead because that means that they won't be able to hear a thing that Lyon and Juvia are saying and Gray and everyone else in the goddamn table will be less likely to butt in. Things are going back on track and he didn't even have to do anything. It's a miracle that Juvia and Lyon even lasted this long, considering the amount of mishaps that's been happening throughout their entire date. He's just glad that Juvia's super nice and understanding and that he's prepped Lyon enough to be able to roll with the punches.

"So, Gajeel...you still haven't told us about your secret mission," Pantherlily says, his eyes narrowing with a serious look. Oh god, he's never letting that go, is he?

"Or why you're also personally invested in Lyon and Juvia's date," Levy adds as she folds her arms.

"You do seem to care a lot more than you should about Juvia's date," Carla comments.

"That's because he liiiikes her!" Happy teases.

Gajeel scowls and buries his head in his arms. He doesn't have time for this right now and he thought that he made it obvious that he does not want to talk about it. And okay, he gets it, his presence here is a little weird and shady especially when he's supposed to be in some super secret mission. But can't the mission happen to involve him putting on a fancy white suit, ordering an overly-expensive cheese platter and sitting with his asshole guildmates? Him being here isn't _that_ weird when you think about it.

"If I told you guys, then it wouldn't really be a secret mission now would it?" Gajeel mutters.

"Something doesn't add up with what you're doing here," Levy says.

"I agree with Levy-san. You are hiding something from us," Pantherlily says.

The thing with Levy and Pantherlily is, they're actually both very smart, especially Levy, so he knows that he can't bullshit his way out of this one without them somehow figuring things out. The best option he has right now is to avoid answering their questions (and maybe avoid them for the rest of the night) or ignore them until they give up. Pantherlily's not the kind to just let things go though and Levy's got this look on her face that he can't really decipher so he knows he's not getting out of this one.

He stands up and throws his hand in the air and says, "You know, I don't have to sit here and listen to you guys _accuse_ of me pulling shady shit—''

Levy interjects, "We're not accusing you—''

"—and furthermore, I don't have to answer your questions!" Gajeel finishes. He then gestures at Cana who looks as if she's on the verge of passing out. "If you wanna worry about something you should worry about Cana over here."

Then he turns around and marches off before they can reply. He goes to the comfort room and stays there for around thirty minutes because he doesn't have the patience to deal with Pantherlily or Levy's questions or with whatever shit Gray and his group of friends are planning. When he decides to go back to their table (because Lily or Levy might freak out or something), he washes his hands and steps outside.

He's careful to move in the direction where Juvia and Lyon are least likely to see him and he's about halfway to their table when he hears a really familiar voice. He stops in mid-step and looks around because it might just be coincidence or whatever and he may just be overly-paranoid. But judging from the amount of people that came to the restaurant, he can't really risk it.

He turns to the left and sees a swishy mass of pink hair and his jaw just drops.

"What the fuck?" He doesn't even try to keep his voice down because he seriously cannot believe what's happening right now. It's that chick Juvia fought with at the Grand Magic Games, the one who's like Lyon's annoying, whiny, kid-sidekick. What was her name again? Delia, Lelia, Melia—

"Chelia!" Gajeel barks.

The girl doesn't hear him. She's talking with this waiter and shoving wads of cash into his hand.

"So let me get this straight...all I have to do is flirt with the girl with blue hair?" the waiter says. He gives Juvia a salacious look that makes Gajeel's blood boil. "That shouldn't be too hard."

Chelia nods. "Yes. Make sure that Lyon, the guy she's with, gets really, really mad. Mad enough to stop their conversation—''

"Okay, what the fuck are you doing here?" Gajeel interrupts , coming in between Chelia and the waiter. Chelia looks at him, first in confusion, then in recognition.

"Oh. It's just you."

"What are you doing here?" Gajeel repeats.

"That's none of your business!" Chelia haughtily replies.

"When you're trying to ruin my friend's date, then it's my business, yeah?" Gajeel hisses. "How the fuck do you know about their date anyways?"

"Seriously? It's the talk of the town," Chelia says and she looks at him as if he's an idiot for not knowing. "_Everyone_ knows about it."

"Fuck. How did word of this even get out?" Gajeel snaps.

"Just stay out of this," Chelia says. She places a fist on her chest and dramatically declares, "I cannot allow my love rival to win Lyon over!"

"Not this crap again!" Gajeel groans and slams the heel of his palm against his head. "Oh come on! Why isn't anyone on Team Lyon?"

"Team Lyon?" Chelia says, confused,

Great. Now he's using Cana's lame-ass term.

He kind of wants to punch someone right now, Chelia or the waiter, but he tries not to because he's promised Levy that he'll start trying to be as less of a dick. And punching chicks, especially tiny chicks, is like, a really dick-ish move and he doesn't want Levy to be disappointed in him or something (What? It's not like he cares about her opinion of him or whatever—he's just trying to be a better person).

The waiter on the other hand is fair game.

He grabs the waiter by the scruff of his collar and growls, showing off his pointy, dragon teeth. "You're not taking a step towards them, you got it asshole? Otherwise I'm going to have to—_ow_!"

Something hits him from the back of his head and he cries out in pain, momentarily losing his grip on the waiter. The waiter gives a confused look before Chelia kicks Gajeel on the knee and shoves the waiter forward. "Go!"

"Fuck! You bitch!" Gajeel curses as he attempts to hobble over towards the waiter. He's so close to this godforsaken date ending and getting his money that he doesn't want something as stupid as a waiter ruining _everything_.

"Don't you dare try to stop him!" Chelia screeches as she hurtles after him. Even with his throbbing knee though, he's still pretty fast so he manages to keep Chelia from catching up. He's not able to stop the waiter though because when he gets close to Lyon and Juvia's table, the waiter's already talking with her.

Chelia comes up to him and snaps, "If you do anything to stop him—''

Gajeel cuts her off and drags her underneath one of the unoccupied tables before Juvia or Lyon can notice their presence. Chelia struggles against his grip and says, "Unhand me right now or I'll scream!"

"Shut up!" Gajeel savagely says. He rolls his eyes and tries to keep her from shifting around so much. "Do you want us to get caught? You're really shitty at this whole sabotage thing, you know."

"I'm great at it, for your information!" Chelia defensively protests.

Gajeel opens his mouth to retort but the sound of the waiter's voice cuts him off. "That's a nice bracelet you have there, miss."

Gajeel carefully moves closer to the edge of the table and lifts up the tablecloth. The waiter is touching Juvia's hand and running his thumb over her knuckles. Lyon looks as if he's about to explode or turn the table over or something. Juvia smiles at the waiter, completely oblivious to the fact that he's flirting with her.

"Oh, thank you! Juvia's...Juvia's friend, Gray-sama, bought it for her once," Juvia says, flushing. Lyon looks even more enraged at the idea of Gray buying _anything_ for Juvia. Gajeel's just surprised because Juvia's never told him this before and he figures that she would, seeing as Stripper giving her shit is a really big deal. And also, Gajeel knows that the bracelet isn't a birthday gift because Gray gave her a necklace for that. And it isn't a present for White Day either because he gave her a box of chocolates. So he must've bought the thing for her for _no reason at all._

Which is weird because Gray doesn't seem like the kind of person who buys things for someone else, just because.

The waiter gives her a small smile and says, "You've got really soft hands, did you know that?"

Juvia starts getting flustered, suddenly realizing the waiter's intention. "Ah...well Juvia does use a special lotion—''

"Shouldn't you be serving us our porcini risotto?" Lyon interjects, looking as if he's desperately trying to control his temper.

"I'm just asking the lady over here if she'd like some champagne," the waiter says. He gives Juvia a small wink and she dissolves into more incoherent babbling. "Discounts are given for extraordinarily beautiful women."

"Ah...well...that—that's sweet of you to say, waiter-san but...but Juvia—''

"—and I are leaving," Lyon says, an incensed look on his face. He takes his wallet out and starts taking bills of money out.

"Lyon-sama?" Juvia says.

"This should cover it," Lyon crisply says as he places the cash on the table. He then takes Juvia's hand and pulls her away from the waiter a little too forcefully. "I know you really wanted to eat here at Maceo's Juvia-chan but I think there's only so much of shoddy service we can take."

"Er..." Juvia mumbles.

"I hope you don't mind but I know this great restaurant that makes the best sandwiches at the other side of town. It's not as fancy as Maceo's but the food is excellent (and not-poisoned) and the service is wonderful," Lyon says as he protectively steps in front of her and gives the waiter a pointed look.

Juvia looks a little relieved that Lyon's blocking her from the waiter. She nods her head and says, "Juvia would like that, Lyon-sama."

Lyon gathers up his coat and Juvia takes her little black purse and bouquet of flowers before walking away from the table. Lyon wraps an arm around her shoulders as they walk away and although she looks a little shocked and uncomfortable at the close contact, she doesn't shrug him away.

When they're both gone, Chelia darts out from under the table and tackles the waiter into a hug. "Yes! You did it!"

"It was pretty easy," the waiter shrugs.

"They're still going out on a date. Just in a different place," Gajeel waspishly tells her, mostly out of spite.

When Chelia hears this, she starts panicking again and she says, "Oh no! I've got to stop them!"

"You're not stopping anyone, you hear?" Gajeel grumbles as he adjusts his hat. He's about to say something more when Gray walks over towards him, cutting off whatever else Chelia is saying.

"What's going on? Why did they just leave? Is their date over?" Gray asks. Gajeel doesn't miss the hopeful look on his face.

"No. They're moving to a new restaurant because Nosey over here paid a waiter to get all touchy-feely with Juvia," Gajeel says as he jerks a thumb at Chelia's direction.

"Yeah, I saw that," Gray says, a dark look in his eyes. He glares at Chelia for a moment, who shrinks under his gaze. Then, he turns around and makes his way back to the table. "Come on. If we hurry, we can still catch up with them."

"Catch up—catch up with them? You're seriously not planning on following them?" Gajeel says in disbelief.

Gray doesn't answer him and he just keeps walking.

"Wait!" Chelia calls out before Gajeel can say anything else. "I'm coming with you!"

* * *

They manage to do a good job of tailing Juvia and Lyon without them knowing up until Cana passes out in the middle of the street. She's downed like ninety percent of the beer she's smuggled and she's been clumsily teetering for awhile now so Gajeel isn't really surprised that she's completely plastered. Even she can't take in that much beer without getting wasted.

Gray looks annoyed and he makes a comment about how they don't have the time to deal with Cana right now. He's being much ruder than he usually is but nobody calls him out on it, not even Erza, because he's been very twitchy since they've left Maceo's and gone to follow Juvia and Lyon.

"Maybe we should just go home, Gray-san," Wendy says, a slightly bleary look in her eyes.

"Wendy's right. This has gone too far. I say we call it quits," Lucy says.

"No! We can't! We can't just...we can't just give up now," Gray desperately says.

"I don't know, Ice Princess. But giving up sounds like a good option to me.I mean..." Natsu spreads his arms out for emphasis. "Look at all the shit we did to them and they're still together! They're actually even finishing their date! Seems to me that she actually _likes_ being with Lyon or something..."

This seems to set Gray off.

"You know what? Fine! Go home if you want to! But I'm not leaving!" Gray says as he turns away from Natsu and Lucy and folds his arms.

"Hey, don't make us out to be the bad guys, Popsicle Breath!" Natsu says, outraged. He marches over towards Gray and jabs a finger against his chest. "Why's this so important to you anyway? What's the big deal?"

"It's because he liiiiikes her!" Happy interjects.

"_No_. I'm just looking out for her," Gray insistently says. "Something's not right about this date."

"You have no proof of that," Carla says. "You're being entirely irrational right now."

"Yeah, Droopy Eyes! Where's the proof?" Natsu demands.

"Natsu..." Lucy says as she attempts to get him to calm down.

"I'm not asking any of you to stay!" Gray retorts. Carla says something back and eventually another argument erupts between all of them. Gajeel just rolls his eyes and makes sure to keep his eyes on Juvia and Lyon's slowly shrinking silhouettes. He has their smell though so tracking them shouldn't be so hard, even if they've gone and disappeared from their line of vision.

"Oi, Shrimp, Lily! Why don't you take Cana home or something? And bring Wendy with you. She shouldn't be out this late at night," Gajeel says. He's really just trying to reduce the number of people coming along with them; the less people he has to watch out for, the better. Asking Levy and Pantherlily to be the ones to do the job will be hitting two birds with one stone. He'll get ride of a bunch of people and have an easier time making sure that Lyon and Juvia's date goes smoothly and he doesn't have to worry about Levy and Pantherlily asking any more questions about his "secret" mission.

Levy however narrows her eyes against him and says, "Are you trying to get rid of us?"

Damn it, he's forgotten how sharp Levy is.

"No, I'm just asking you to be a good friend or something by being concerned over Cana," Gajeel quickly says.

"You could do that. You're the only one out of all of us who has no concern with this entire situation at all," Levy pointedly says.

"Eh?" Gajeel responds, a little stupidly.

"Gray's here because he likes Juvia and he doesn't want her to end up with Lyon," Levy says as she gestures at Gray who stops fighting with everybody and stares at Levy, open-mouthed.

"That's not the reason why I'm here!" Gray protests for the _millionth_ time.

Levy ignores him and continues, "Erza, Natsu, Lucy, Wendy, Happy and Carla are here because they want to support Gray. Chelia is here because she likes Lyon and doesn't want him to end up with Juvia. And me, Lily and Cana are here because we want to see what the outcome of the date is and report it to the guild so we'll know who won the bet."

She shoots him a suspicious look and stabs his chest with her finger. "I know that you're lying about this mission the Master is sending you. And even if you are telling the truth, I know that spying on Juvia and Lyon isn't what your secret mission is."

"You're the only one who has no real reason to be here. Unless..." She trails off and a disappointed look crosses her face. "Unless...you _like_ Juvia too and you're trying to sabotage their date because you want her for yourself."

"What?" Gray roars in outrage.

"_What_?" Gajeel sputters, totally grossed out by the thought of him wanting Juvia in _that_ way. It's practically _incest_.

"Levy's explanation does seem reasonable," Erza comments.

"I don't like Juvia in _that_ way!" Gajeel says, his cheeks staining red from embarrassment.

"Then, what are you doing here Gajeel?" Levy demands.

"Why do _you_ care so much anyway? What does it matter what I'm doing here? Can't you just mind your own—wait." His eyes widen when he realizes something. Levy acting all weird and angry at the possibility of him liking Juvia romantically almost seems as if it's because she's... "_Jealous_. Wait. Are you jealous because I might be jealous of Lyon liking Juvia?"

He's not going to lie and act as if he doesn't like it because he does. It's kind of cute, how she actually pays attention to the various relationships he has with other women. He always thought that he's the only one who did that sort of thing to her.

(Yeah, he keeps a close eye on Jet and Droy and you know, every other guy that comes into contact with her. But that's only because he's trying to look out for her.

Fuck.

Now, he sounds like Gray.)

Levy doesn't have to worry though because he and Juvia aren't like _that_. They're close of course, but that's just because he's known her for a long time. He sees her more as a sister than anything and he gets seriously creeped out whenever someone implies that they're dating. And besides, what he has with Levy is something that's completely different than anything he's had with any other girl. He can't explain it but it's a nice feeling and he likes it and won't be stopping any of it, any time soon. But he's not telling her any of the stuff he's just been thinking because there are other people with them and it just sounds so lame.

"Stop...stop avoiding the question!" Levy sputters, flustered.

"Yeah, Gajeel! Answer the question!" Gray snaps.

"So wait...you're not jealous?" Gajeel asks. What? He just wants to clarify.

"Gajeel!" Levy hisses in annoyance.

"I don't have to answer to any of you," Gajeel barks.

"Gajeel," Pantherlily says and before he can stop, he finds himself looking into the cat's eyes.

Shit.

There's no going back now.

Pantherlily holds his gaze before he can look away. Everyone is staring at him. He tries to think up of something to say, anything to keep himself from telling the truth but his mind draws up blank and he just finds himself feeling all fucked up. Pantherlily's boring holes into his eyes and he knows that there's no way he can weasel out of this, not when he has to argue with Levy's logic. Why does she have to be so smart?

Gajeel sighs and squares his shoulders.

Okay.

He'll just say it.

It's no big deal, right?"

"Fine," Gajeel says. "Master did not...send me on any mission."

"Then why are you here?" Natsu asks.

"I'm here because...well...Lyon may have asked for my help in getting a date with Juvia," Gajeel mumbles. "And...he may have...er...expressed his gratitude by you know...offering to pay me a few thousand jewels."

Nobody speaks for a very long time. Gray just stands there, a poleaxed look on his face. Then, suddenly, he starts muttering under his breath, "Lyon speaking French...him knowing all those bands even when he doesn't listen to that kind of music...him knowing that Juvia has always wanted to go to Maceo's...it's all because of..."

Gray meets his eyes. "Of you. You helped Lyon manipulate her into going out with him. I knew it. I knew there was something not right about this date."

"We didn't manipulate her!" Gajeel defensively says.

Gray's fingers ball into fists. His eyes suddenly narrows in anger.

Before Gajeel or anyone else can react, he hurtles towards Gajeel, fists flying as he growls, "You...you bastard!"

* * *

**Author's Note:** Hi guys! So in case some people are not familiar with the bands Juvia mentioned, they are in fact _real_ bands. I debated with myself over a long time if I should make up fictional bands or just use real ones. I wanted to use Japanese rock bands but I'm not really familiar with them so I decided to just stick with the bands that I do know. I highly recommend that you all listen to the songs mentioned because they are very lovely (especially the one by The Strokes). Also, I know a lot of people have the headcanon of Juvia being a metalhead but I think that aside from liking metal rock, her playlist would be full of punk-rock or alternative rock bands as well.

Please review if you have the time (But if you're busy then I won't hold it against you because I know midterm seasons is upon some of you and it can be killer hahaha). I would really like to hear your thoughts! I hope you guys enjoyed reading this chapter!

UPDATE: I completely forgot to thank those who have reviewed. Thank you!


	5. Chapter 5

**5**

* * *

Gray socks him on the jaw before he can respond or actually you know, say something in his defense. The two of them stagger backwards and he gives out a surprised cry as his head slams against the pavement. His vision blurs, just for a moment, but he swings his arms anyways and tries to get a punch in. Levy screams and Erza says something out loud and Natsu starts cheering and everything just essentially becomes a mishmash of yelling.

"I can't believe you! Juvia's supposed to be your friend!" Gray savagely says as Gajeel dodges his punch. Gajeel blinks back at him, a little surprised at Gray's aggressive behavior. Yeah, the Stripper gets into fights from time to time but he doesn't completely lose his cool (Ha ha. _Pun_.) over something as stupid as this. Up until now.

"I'm doing this _because_ I'm her friend!" Gajeel snaps as he slams his knee against Gray's chest. He doesn't understand why Gray's acting like such an ass. He knows that helping Lyon get a date with Juvia by feeding him information about her may be a bit of douche move for him but he honestly just had the best intentions. It's not as if he and Lyon were planning to murder or mindscrew her or anything. They hadn't been planning on intentionally hurting her. People in the guild have done far shittier and stupider things to each other and Gray didn't respond by punching them on the face.

"You have no right...no right at all to be here!" Gray snarls. Erza has her arms around his chest and she's trying to pull him away while Levy and Pantherlily are both holding Gajeel down by the arms, trying to restrain him. Wendy's looking at the scene in horror, with a hand over her mouth while Chelia looks excited, as if she's been having a really boring evening and it's only just gotten interesting. Lucy's just trying to stop Natsu from joining in the fight.

"Neither do you, you dipshit!" Gajeel says as he tries to struggle free from Pantherlily and Levy's grip. "Don't come slinging your self-righteous bullshit at me! You're the one who came here and tried to _ruin_ Juvia's date!"

"You don't even care about her! All you care about is the money!" Gray spits out, completely ignoring Erza's stern commands to stop.

Gajeel pauses, a little stunned. Then, rage bubbles up from inside him and he surges forward throwing Pantherlily and Levy off (but you know, not before making sure that Levy's okay—he was very, very _gentle_ in pushing her away, okay?). He crashes against Gray, arms and knees swinging, completely ignoring the enraged sounds that Erza's making.

What Gray said to him really ticks him off because that's just one of the shittiest things anyone could ever suggest to him. He's done a lot of stupid things to other people before and maybe he kind of sucks as a friend, but he's _loyal_—at least to the people he cares about. If anyone ever tried to hurt any of his friends then he would definitely step in and do something about it. Gray accusing him of selling Juvia out for money is not fair because he's not that kind of person. And okay, maybe the money is a big factor as to why he wants Juvia's date to go smoothly, but at the very core of things, he just really wants her to be happy and he honestly thinks that Lyon's the one to be able to give her that happiness.

"I don't care about her?" Gajeel rages as he tries to sidestep Erza and land a punch on Gray's stupid face. "If there's anyone here who doesn't care about her, it's _you_!"

"What?" Gray says as he elbows Erza away, who grunts, and dodges Gajeel's jab.

"Go for his jugular, Popsicle Breath! The jugular!" Natsu says, completely enjoying the fight.

"No! The chest! Go for the chest!" Chelia interjects, looking absolutely delighted.

"Natsu...Chelia...I don't think you guys should be egging them on," Lucy mumbles as she tries to support Cana's weight against her shoulder.

"I think this is fun," Happy comments.

"Stop being unhelpful!" Lucy snaps at him.

"You heard me! You care jack squat about her!" Gajeel says.

"If there's anyone who cares the most about her, it's _me_!" Gray says. If Gajeel wasn't so mad, he might've thought that Gray actually meant it. He certainly sounded like he did.

"_Please_. If you really care about her, then you wouldn't spend half your time being such a dick to her. She fucking loves you and all you ever do is ignore her!" Gajeel bitingly says. "Stop stringing her along!"

"I'm entitled to my own feelings!" Gray says, his voice slightly wavering. Deep patches of red are breaking out across his face and neck. "And I'm—I'm not obligated to reciprocate her advances!"

"But you are obligated to _respond_! Stop treating her feelings as if they don't exist! How fucking hard is to tell her you don't feel the same way!? And not in a stupid, bullshit, casual-throwaway manner! Like legit tell her. In a real conversation and stuff!"

"I did tell her. In the games."

"You should've made it clearer then."

"How clearer could I have made it? I flat out told her _no_!" Gray says in frustration. "Stop blaming me for everything!"

"Well, sit her down then. Have a conversation with her and really, really tell her. You ignoring her feelings or humoring her isn't going to make it stop."

"I can't just...I can't just do that," Gray mumbles.

"Why not?"

"You don't know what it's like to be friends with someone and be afraid of losing that friendship or turning it into something more!"

(Gajeel actually kind of gets it, really, _he does_, because he's still working around trying to you know, bring up the topic to _Shrimp_. But whatever. They're talking about Gray's issues, not his.)

"Bullshit! Either you want her or you don't! What's it going to be?"

"It's not that simple!"

"Fuck it! Of course it is! All you have to do is to tell her how you feel, whether it be good or bad! Yeah she'll be upset but at least both of you can actually move on!"

"What is this? A slumber party? I'm not telling you a single fucking thing about how I really feel about her!" Gray says. They're both yelling now and drawing a lot of attention but neither of them really care. They both just want to beat the living shit out of each other.

"I just want her to be happy!" Gajeel snaps.

"And you think Lyon's the answer!?"

"Well, he's doing a better job at it than you! At least he's doing _something_!"

Erza steps in between them and says, "Boys—''

"Shut up!" they both yell, reflexively punching her in the face.

Everyone stiffens as Erza stumbles backwards. Gray and Gajeel stop their argument, finally realizing just how much they have fucked up. Erza stands up, an eerily calm look on her face. She dusts the skirt of her dress off before walking towards Gajeel and Gray in slow, measured steps. Lucy gives a nervous whimper and Wendy crouches behind Natsu's back as Erza looks at Gajeel and Gray, her eyes intense. Then, she grabs the back of their heads and knocks them against each other.

"Ow!"

"Ow!"

"_Idiots_! Enough fighting!" Erza hisses as Gajeel and Gray weakly stagger and try to control the throbbing in their heads. She puts her hands on her hips and with a dignified lift of her chin, she solemnly says, "You are both _grown_ men. Violence is not the way to solve whatever problems you both have with each other."

She then grabs them by the collar and roughly shakes them, ignoring their pained cries of protests. She looms over their faces, a threatening, cold look in her eyes. She says, "_Do I make myself clear_?"

"Yes," Gray and Gajeel quickly say.

"Good," Erza says, unceremoniously dumping them on the ground. She gives everyone a serious look, pausing for a second as she meets all of their eyes. "Juvia is our friend. We all care for her although we obviously have different ways of expressing it and have different beliefs on what we think is good for her or what we think makes her happy. Whatever the case may be, there is no need for fighting."

She then turns towards Lucy and with one quick, efficient movement; she takes Cana away from Lucy's grasp before addressing Levy and Wendy. "Levy, Pantherlily, take Cana home. Do not worry. Whatever the outcome of this evening will be, we will report it to you and Cana immediately so that you can tell the rest of the guild. And Wendy Carla, you two should go home and get some rest."

She passes Cana over to Levy and Wendy who reluctantly support her with their shoulders.

The four of them nod their heads, too terrified to argue. Erza turns to look at Natsu and Lucy. She says, "Even though Gray needs our moral support, if you two don't want to stay here, then you may leave as well."

"Eh...we're fine staying here," Lucy says.

Natsu frowns and says, "But—''

Lucy elbows him and gives him a look before he can finish whatever he is about to say.

Then, Erza faces Chelia, Gajeel and Gray. "There will be no more interfering with Lyon and Juvia's date. Gajeel's right. We will only listen in. We will only intervene when something seems strange or suspicious."

She folds her arms and says, "Do we all agree?"

Everyone mumbles varying tones of agreement.

"I said do we all agree?" Erza repeats in a firmer tone, her eyes narrowing.

"Aye sir!" Happy squeaks in terror. Lucy hastily nods her head along with Natsu while Chelia, Wendy, Levy and the two other Exceeds all mumble yes.

"Gajeel? Gray?" Erza says.

"Yeah, sure," Gray mumbles.

"Fine," Gajeel says.

Erza gives a satisfied nod with her head. "Good."

* * *

Pantherlily's shifted into biped form so that he can carry Cana. Gajeel actually insisted on it since he doesn't want either Levy or Wendy to strain themselves too much. He's not exactly sure where Cana lives but what he does know is that the town's main establishments, including the apartment complexes, are a good deal off from where they are now. It's going to take them at least an hour or so to get to wherever Cana lives.

While everyone's off talking with each other for last minute planning and instructions, Pantherlily pulls him aside before they leave and tells him, "What are you going to do when Juvia finds out?"

"She won't," Gajeel says, folding his arms.

"She might."

"Well..." Gajeel tugs at his collar and nervously swallows. "So what? She'll understand. I had her interests at heart—''

"By setting her up with Lyon?"

"Friends do that to their friends all the time! Fuck! Mira does it all the time and you don't give her a hard time about it!"

"I'm pretty sure friends don't give intimate information about their friends to other people. All so they could get paid," Pantherlily sternly tells him. He shifts Cana's position so that instead of carrying her bridal style, her body is slung over his shoulder.

"For the last time, I didn't do this for the money!" Gajeel exasperatedly says.

"It doesn't matter. Juvia will hate you forever if she finds out," Pantherlily says.

"Not forever. She's too nice to hate someone forever. Especially if it's _me_. Maybe three weeks tops," Gajeel insistently says. He glares at Pantherlily. "Why are you so sure that she'll find out, anyways?"

Pantherlily rolls his eyes. "With Natsu, Erza, Lucy and Gray for company, I'm quite surprised that neither she nor Lyon have caught on yet."

Pantherlily then grabs him by the wrist, meets his eyes and says, "I don't like the way you're interfering in Juvia's life and helping Lyon essentially manipulate her into thinking that they're the perfect match. You're her best friend and I thought you would be better than that. Juvia-chan deserves better than that."

"We're not manipulating her!" Gajeel defensively protests. See? This is exactly why he decided not to tell Pantherlily about this whole thing. He knew that he would get lectured if he did. "And Juvia would probably do something like this to get Gray anyways!"

"I don't think she would go as far as to _lie_ to him...maybe she would just give him a life-sized statue of himself made out of cake..." Pantherlily thoughtfully says.

"Okay, what?" Gajeel says, confused. Cake? What the fuck? Then again, Gajeel decides, Juvia does have an _interesting_ mind. But you know, the object of her affections is probably weirder. Gray takes his clothes whenever and wherever. He honestly has no idea how that anyone can thinks that's normal.

"Again, what if she finds out? She'll be very upset. All I'm saying is that she's made her decision and made it clear that she wants Gray. It's not your business to intervene, especially in this manner, Perhaps giving her advice is acceptable but not this," Pantherlily tells him.

"Oh yeah? What about Stripper huh? He's messing with her love life and I don't hear you ragging on him about it," Gajeel hotly says.

Pantherlily jerks his head to the direction of where Gray is standing. Carla is in front of him, arms folded, a serious expression on her face. Gray is hanging his head and furiously staring into ground. "Carla's handling it for me."

"Well, whatever, _dad_," Gajeel sarcastically says. There's this uncomfortable feeling that's needling him from the inside—it's a painful dragging that's moiling around his chest. He thinks that it may be guilt or something and he actually feels kind of bad, but he's not going to tell Pantherlily that. "If you're done with your sermon, you can go now."

"Hmph. Very well," Pantherlily says, clearly displeased with Gajeel's snarky behavior. "Oh, wait. I believe that Levy-chan would like to talk to you before we leave."

He turns to the side and gestures at Levy to come closer. He then gives Gajeel one more disapproving look before walking off to where Wendy is. Levy starts walking towards him, her right hand clasped on her left elbow, a nervous look on her face. Gajeel glares at her, a little miffed, because nobody would've found out if she hadn't needled on him relentlessly about his real motive for following Juvia and Lyon around.

"What?" he grunts.

Her eyes widen and her bottom lip quivers and he starts feeling a little less annoyed, because damn it, she looks so _cute_. Levy looks at her feet before saying, "I'm sorry about asking you so many questions. You're right. It wasn't any of my business. I was just—''

"It's okay," he says, because he can't stand seeing her being so upset for too long. Then, he uncomfortably shifts in his place and looks at the cuff links of his shirt before looking up to meet her eyes. "And you shouldn't have to be jealous—''

"I wasn't jealous!" Levy protests, embarrassed.

"—because I don't like Juvia in that way. Not in the same way that...that I you know, like you. Or whatever," he mumbles. Then, even though it's completely necessary, he adds, "As a friend."

"Right. As a friend."

"Right," Gajeel awkwardly says.

"Oh. Well. Good," Levy says, lifting her chin a little. She's smiling though and her eyes are shining. She stands on her tiptoes and playfully flicks his hat. "You look cute in your suit."

"Yeah, you sure? Cause Stripper over there told me that I look horrible in it," Gajeel jokingly says.

"He's just jealous," Levy says with a small laugh.

"You look really great too, Shrimp," he mumbles. He can feel himself flushing and he doesn't even know why. He's just complimenting her. Friends compliment each other all the time, right?

"Thank you." Levy says, looking extremely happy. She then tucks a lock of her hair behind her ear and gives him a serious look. "If it makes you feel any better, I think it's nice of you to care so much about Juvia."

"Thanks," he says, finally glad that someone isn't lecturing him or ragging on him for once.

"Never pegged you for a romantic," she teasingly says.

"This isn't about romance!"

"Sure, it isn't," Levy patronizingly says. She crosses her arms and raises a brow. "But if you're going to be helping someone get together with her, it should've been at least Gray."

"Gray? Why him? He doesn't even like her," Gajeel frowns, confused.

Levy rolls her eyes and looks at him as if he's stupid. "_Boys_."

"What?"

"Never mind. I think Lily's calling me. We have to get going before its too late," Levy says. She gives him a little wave. "Bye."

He pats her on the head, like he always does. She gives a squeak of protest. "Bye Shrimp."

Levy's party leaves and the rest of them, with the help of Gajeel and Natsus's strong sense of smell, head to the direction of where Lyon and Juvia were going. Gray doesn't speak to Gajeel the whole way through, which is fine, because he doesn't need Stripper's validation or friendship anyways. No one really spoke, actually, except for Chelia, who rambled on and on about Lyon and Lamia Scale and her cousin Sherry. It's a little annoying but Juvia's sometimes like that, so he's used to it.

They manage to track Juvia and Lyon down to this cozy, cottage-styled cafe in one of the older districts in town. Erza suggests looking through the window first, so that she can see where Juvia and Lyon are seated—this way they'll be able to figure out the best way to get inside without Lyon and Juvia catching on.

"They're sitting near the counter so I think that if we go to the left and duck, we'll be able to avoid them. I suppose we can sit somewhere near the front door so that we have a good vantage point of them," Erza says.

"We're going in? There?" Lucy says. She gestures at her white dress. "We look way too fancy to be in a cafe."

"It doesn't matter," Erza nonchalantly shrugs.

"But how will we be able to hear them?" Natsu asks.

"Leave that to me," Erza says, a sly, mysterious look in her eyes. She looks at Gray and gestures at the lacrima speaker in his hands. "Just keep that thing on."

Gray nods his head and after a review of the plan, they all quietly slip inside, one by one, careful not to draw attention to themselves. When they get inside, they look around for a moment, trying to pick out a table. Lyon and Juvia are engrossed with the menus so they don't have to worry so much about being seen; they just need to get the right table. Gajeel sees the perfect table—there are three more tables surrounding it so they'll be blocked from Juvia and Lyon's line of vision pretty well and it's also partially obscured by a huge-ass potted plant and a pillar. The only problem is that someone's already sitting on it—

"No fucking way!" Gajeel says when he catches sight of another head of pink, wavy hair. Meredy's sitting on the table absentmindedly playing with a napkin, a bored look on her face.

"Did you find a table Gajeel?" Erza asks, coming up from behind me.

"No, I—''

"Yes. That's the perfect spot," Erza says following his line of vision.

"But...but Meredy's sitting there!" Lucy says, looking just as surprised as Gajeel to see Meredy there.

Erza nonchalantly says, "No matter. I'm sure she would be kind enough to share."

She points at the table and says, "You five go over there and ask for Meredy's permission with sharing the table. I will figure out a way to attach the microphone lacrima to Lyon and Juvia's table."

Lucy raises her hand in protest. "But—''

"_Now_," Erza says, giving all of them ominous looks.

They all hastily agree and troop towards the table before Erza can lose her temper. Gajeel follows after them, feeling tired. He's gotten rid of a huge chunk of their entourage, only to get a new one in replacement. He doesn't even know why he's so surprised. With the amount of the people that's been showing up to Lyon and Juvia's date, it's a miracle that the entire freaking town isn't here.

"Hi Meredy!" Chelia happily chirps as she bounds towards the table. Meredy looks up, her eyes widening in surprise when she catches sight of all of them. Chelia pulls up a chair next to her and amiably ask, "Are you hear to stalk Juvia and Lyon too?"

"Stalk...Juvia and Lyon? What?" Meredy says in confusion.

"Seriously. How do fuck does everyone know about Juvia and Lyon's date?" Gajeel asks in frustration, cutting Chelia off before she can answer. He'd really, really like to know.

"Date? What date?" Meredy says, her brow furrowing.

"So you don't know about Juvia and Lyon's date?" Lucy says.

"No. Should I have known about it?" Meredy asks.

"Wait. If you don't know about Lyon and Juvia's date, then what are you doing here?" Natsu says, a dimple appearing in between his brows.

"I'm here to order take-out. Jellal was craving for some banana pie," Meredy says, the expression on her face becoming more and more incredulous. "What are _you_ guys doing here?"

"It's a long story. You wouldn't believe it if we told you," Chelia excitedly says.

"Well, I have thirty minutes until my order arrives," Meredy shrugs. She gestures at the empty seats on the table. "You guys should sit down and tell me about it."

"We were just about to ask you the very same thing!" Lucy says as she takes a seat next to Meredy.

"Thanks," Gray mumbles, speaking up for the first time. Lucy, Chelia and Happy take turns telling the entire story of the shenanigans they've been involved in throughout the entire night. As Lucy continues speaking, Meredy starts looking more and more amused while the expression on Gray's face is steadily dissolving into one of embarrassment. Gajeel figures that it's because Happy hasn't stopped talking about how all of this was because Gray likes (liiiiiiikes) Juvia.

"Wow, you guys are involved in some crazy stuff," Meredy says, her lips twitching into a smirk. She turns and gives Gray a teasing look before elbowing him in the sides. "So you finally decided to make your move, eh stud?"

"W-What move?" Gray says looking flustered.

Meredy just shakes her head and laughs. She then turns to look at Gajeel and raises her brow. "But what I don't get is why Lyon had to ask _you_ of all people to help him. He could've asked me and I would've gotten him a date with Juvia for _free_."

"Well, nobody knows Juvia better than I do," Gajeel gruffly says. He doesn't notice the way Gray's jaw clenches when he says that.

"So do I," Meredy insists. "Ever since Tenroujima, we're practically best friends."

Gajeel frowns at her, feeling offended. He thinks that she doesn't have the right to go making claims like that. She barely even knows Juvia and her weird little quirks and the stuff that makes her tick. Also, she basically tried to _kill_ Juvia back in Tenroujima. He doesn't know much about friendships but he honestly thinks that, that kind of disqualifies Meredy from being best friend material. If anyone's Juvia's best friend, it's _him_.

(And okay, he knows that he sounds _slightly_ jealous but you would be too if another person was claiming to be the best friend of well, your best friend.)

"But I've known her the longest," Gajeel argues.

"Doesn't mean you know her the best," Meredy shoots back.

"Well—''

A whine of static suddenly interrupts their burgeoning argument. Lyon's voice crackles out of the speaker, "I hope you don't mind moving to another restaurant, Juvia-chan."

"No, not at all Lyon-sama," Juvia sweetly tells him.

"Looks like Erza attached the microphone," Happy comments.

"I just hope nothing goes wrong this time," Lyon says.

"Yes, tonight has been really weird."

"I know! It almost seems as if someone out there doesn't want us to have a good time. As if they're ruining our date on purpose."

"Friendly dinner," Juvia corrects.

"Right."

Erza appears moments later, a satisfied look on her face. She's somehow wearing the same outfit as the rest of the waitresses—black skirt with a loose, flowy white top. She takes a seat and nods her head in approval. "Ah, good. You've already asked Meredy. I hope you don't mind sharing a table with us."

"No, not at all. I'm just waiting for my order. Jellal really wanted banana pie," Meredy says.

"Jellal?" Erza says, her cheeks reddening at his name.

"Yes. Oh, have you spoken to him lately? He's been asking about you," Meredy says, her eyes shining with mischief.

"Oh, well...er...we haven't really..." Erza trails off, losing her composure. Everyone grins at her, amused. She straightens up, managing to control herself. "It doesn't really matter. We're not here to discuss that. We're here to listen in on Juvia and Lyon's conversation."

She promptly turns to the speaker, before anyone else can say anything or tease her even further. Lyon's talking to Juvia about food, telling her the stuff he's ordered. He's talking about quiche or something and Juvia's nodding her head along and telling him that it all sounds so delicious. They start talking about different guilds again and Lyon starts babbling about the new policies Ooba's implementing. Juvia's smiling at him and responding but Gajeel can tell that she's just being polite more than anything. There's just something in the lift of her chin and the way the corners of her mouth are static, instead of twitching like they always are, that tells Gajeel that while she does respect Lyon and considers him to be a good friend, she's just not romantically interested in him.

Which is really _disappointing_ because he's worked so hard to make this whole goddamn thing work out and it's going _nowhere_. He and Lyon are going to have to pull up more weight if they're going to actually succeed in getting Juvia to come around the idea of dating Lyon. It's going to be hard, obviously, but she seems to like him well enough, as a friend at least, and that's a step forward so they don't necessarily have to start from scratch.

"Do you play any instruments, Juvia-chan?" Lyon asks her.

Juvia's eyes light up and she gets this excited look on her face.

"Piano. She plays the piano. She also plays the violin but she's not as good. She wanted to learn the guitar too but you never had the time or patience to teach her," Gray mumbles, pointedly looking at Gajeel. Gajeel's eyes widen in surprise because he's pretty sure that Juvia's never told anyone this. In fact, he's also surprised because Gray knew a bunch of shit about violins and guitars and he's never heard Juvia tell him any of those things before.

"I don't remember her asking me to teach her how to play the guitar," Gajeel says, although now that he thinks about it, he does remember her bothering him about it once, when they came back from that especially long mission from Pines Town. "And when did she find the time to learn the violin, anyways?"

"When she was in the orphanage, no one wanted to play with her. There were a couple of instruments lying around, so to pass the time, she would often try to learn how to play them," Gray answers, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"How the fuck do you know that?" Juvia's never told him anything about it and he's heard every single horrible experience she's had in the orphanage.

"Doesn't everybody know that?" Gray says in slight confusion.

"_Shh_!" Erza hisses as she adjusts the volume of the speaker.

"Juvia can play the piano!" Juvia says.

"Really? Just as I thought. I always knew you were talented, Juvia-chan," Lyon says, with feigned surprise. "What's your favorite piece?"

"Air and Hammerklavier," Gray promptly says

"Well, Juvia loves the piano piece of Air by Bach but she loves Beethoven's Hammerklavier as well," Juvia says.

"Great pieces," Lyon knowledgeably says. "Can you play anything else?"

"Well...Juvia can play the violin but she's not as good. She's always wanted to learn the guitar but Gajeel-kun never had the time or patience to teach Juvia," she says, her lips puckering into a little pout.

"That's a lot of instruments," Lyon says, looking genuinely surprised this time. "Where'd you find the time to learn how to play the piano anyways?"

"Well..." Juvia starts looking uncomfortable. Gajeel starts panicking because shit. Lyon just basically did one of the things Gajeel specifically told him not to do—allude to her past as the rain woman. "Juvia...Juvia...erm..well, when she was a child, she couldn't control the rain so nobody wanted to be near her. She cooked and sewed to pass the time but sometimes she would get bored so...she would try to learn how to play the piano to pass the time. The caretaker of the orphanage knew how and he taught Juvia. He was very sweet."

"Oh," Lyon says, clearly realizing his mistake. Juvia's still smiling but there's a dull, muted look in her eyes and she's playing with her napkin in a tense, uncomfortable manner. "I'm...so sorry Juvia—''

"No, don't be ridiculous. That part of Juvia's life is over now," she says, attempting to sound cheery.

"But—''

"It's fine," she says, forcing out a bright smile. "Oh, look! The food is here!"

"Ah, yes! They make the best quiche here," Lyon says, quickly catching on to Juvia's attempt to diffuse the uncomfortable turn of their conversation. The waitress sets the plates on the table and Juvia hastily grabs her fork and starts digging into the quiche.

"This is very delicious, Lyon-sama," Juvia says, her happy temperament steadily returning.

"I actually wanted to order the buttermilk fried string beans but I knew that you wouldn't like it since you hate string beans and stick your tongue out whenever you see them," Lyon babbles as he unfolds his napkin and places it over his lap.

"Juvia hates string beans?" Gray says sounding surprised.

Juvia pauses, her hand hovering above her plate in mid-air. Her brows scrunch together and her mouth, which had been quirked into a smile, is now folded into a small frown. She narrows her eyes against Lyon, a suspicious look quickly mapping across her features. She sounds calm enough when she says it but there's an edge to her voice. "How do you know that?"

"Know what?" Lyon asks, confused at the sudden turn in Juvia's demeanor.

"How do you know that Juvia doesn't like string beans? Juvia doesn't recall ever telling you that," Juvia says, her attention now completely focused on Lyon.

"What? Are you sure? Because I distinctly recall you telling me—''

"Juvia never told you that," she repeats, her expression unreadable. Gajeel can't really tell if she's angry or not, because her face is just sort of blank. But in his experience, that's usually so much _worse_, because it means that shit is about to go down.

"Oh. Then I must have seen you stick your tongue out or something once, while we were eating together," Lyon reasons, sweat beading across his forehead.

"We've only eaten together thrice, including now," Juvia says, her voice completely even but Gajeel can see from the sheen in her eyes that she's rapidly piecing everything together.

Fuck.

_Fuck_.

Lyon, for once, looks completely at a loss for words. Juvia's tapping her fingers against the table now, her face impassive but hard. Gajeel's seen that look before—it's the look she used to get when they interrogated members of dark guilds or thieves or criminals. Back in Phantom Lord, he and Juvia used to have this good cop-bad cop thing going on. He's usually the bad cop except that in reality (and he's not even ashamed to admit this), Juvia's actually the _worse_ cop. Seriously. There's a reason why she used to be called the dreaded Ame-onna, Juvia of the Deep, of the Great Sea. Where the rain falls, despair is sure to follow.

From beside him, Gray's looking happy that Lyon and Juvia's conversation is rapidly souring. Gajeel tries to control himself because he really wants to smack Gray right now.

"You must have mentioned it. Maybe you just forgot," Lyon sputters, trying to desperately distract Juvia's attention. He hastily points at a waitress approaching their table. "Oh look! Dessert!"

"Juvia's sure she never mentioned it. In fact, only Gajeel-kun knows that Juvia hates string beans. _Only him_," Juvia says, her expression becoming more and more apprehensive. Gajeel slams his head against the table because he knows that there's no way Lyon's getting out of this one.

The thing about Juvia is that she's smarter than a lot of people give her credit for. Yeah, she does a lot of insane things and she's kind of crazy and high-strung and maybe she's got the most intense tunnel vision mentality _ever_, but she's not an idiot. She's pretty sharp when she actually gets serious enough and she can direct all her crazy-ass focus on to little things that nobody can really pick up on—she's scary observant and perceptive when she wants to be. And besides, she's been in Phantom Lord for quite a while. You don't last in that guild if you're like, stupid.

His line of thought gets broken when he catches Gray looking at him with an annoyed, almost pissed off expression.

"What?" Gajeel snaps.

"How do you know so many things about her?" Gray demands, a feverish expression in his eyes. Everyone else turns their attention to both Gray and Gajeel, completely ignoring Lyon and Juvia's slowly deteriorating conversation.

Gajeel rolls his eyes. "We're friends. That's what friends do. They know shit about each other."

"You know more things about her than a regular friend would," Gray says, his voice sounding slightly accusatory.

"Well, so do you!" Gajeel retorts, annoyed. What the fuck? What's Gray's problem with him? If Gray's going to be asking questions like that, he should ask himself first. He knew all that stuff about the lilies and Juvia's dislike of lamb and the violin and guitar thing—shit that even Gajeel didn't know.

"You also know a lot of shit about her, more than what a regular friend should know!" Gajeel explodes.

Then, it's like something within him clicks.

When he finishes saying the words, _holy fuck_, it's like the light bulbs are finally switched on. _Gray likes Juvia_. Not just the platonic, shallow kind of like either—the bastard actually full on _likes_ her and shit. It's all starting to make sense now and he feels like an idiot for not getting it earlier. Gray knowing all that stuff about Juvia that even Gajeel doesn't know, that not-birthday-not-White-Day-bracelet present he gave Juvia, him trying to sabotage Lyon and Juvia's date. How the fuck did Gajeel miss this? And when did Gray and Juvia start hanging out enough for Gray to know all that intimate stuff about her? But now that Gajeel thinks about it, he has seen the two of them hanging out together alone. A lot.

Fuck.

Gray likes her but he's just going about it in the most awkward, dorkiest, stupidest way possible.

"Are you kidding me? Everybody knows those things—''

"No, they don't! Everybody doesn't know those things! Even _I_ don't know those things and I'm her closest friend!" Gajeel says. "You _like_ her!"

"No, I don't—''

"You like her...that's why you're doing all this! You don't want to ruin her date because you want to keep all of her attention! You want to ruin it because you like her and your jealous and your afraid that Lyon's somehow going to move in!"

Gray starts getting flustered. "You don't know what you're talking about—''

"Cut the bullshit. _You like her._ You like her but instead of telling her like a normal person would, you act like an idiot and pretend you don't like her and _stalk_ her instead!" Gajeel says, his voice rising octaves higher with every word.

"Gajeel," Lucy hisses. "I think you should—''

"I'm not stalking her! I'm looking out for her!" Gray hotly says.

"You don't even have the right to be here! Or to be jealous! Because you already told her _no_!"

Gray flushes and mutters, "You don't know what I've been through or how many people I've already lost!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Gajeel says. God, he's just making this conversation move around in circles.

"Nevermind," Gray mutters.

"You're such a weirdo. Why can't you just tell her how you feel like a normal person?" Gajeel says (He's one to talk but whatever.)

"Fine. I'll admit it. I care about her."

"_Please_. Why don't you just grow a pair and admit that you want her? You know what!? This is actually all your fault!" Gajeel says, completely losing his temper.

"_My fault!_?" Gray roars.

"If you had just stopped being such a confusing idiot and outright said that you liked her or whatever, then I wouldn't have agreed to help Lyon—''

"You shouldn't have helped him in the first place!"

"What!? So we could all wait for you to do _nothing_!? She's not going to wait for you forever, you know? You don't have any right to act like a jealous prick because this is all your damn fault! It's your fault for not doing something—''

"Guys, I think you should tone it down a little," Meredy nervously says.

"Fuck, Gray. You're such a _loser_ when it comes to relationships," Gajeel says, shaking his head and giving him a slightly pitying look.

"And what? _You're not_? I don't see you doing anything proactive regarding your feelings for Levy! It's obvious you like her but you're not doing anything about it as well!" Gray retorts.

Gajeel can feel the blood roaring in his ears. "Don't drag Levy into this!"

"Umm guys..." Lucy nervously says.

"You're the one who started it!"

"Only because you were being a prick!"

"Oi, oi," Natsu interjects, a queasy look in his eyes.

"You were the one who started flinging shit—''

"Hey! I'm not the one spending my evening stalking a girl I like and her date—''

"I'm _not_ stalking her—''

"Gray. Gajeel," Erza hisses.

"_What_!?" Gray and Gajeel says, furious at having their argument interrupted.

Chelia points a shaky finger towards Juvia and Lyon's table. The pair are both staring at them, Lyon with an anxious look on his face and Juvia with shocked, furious eyes.

"I think they've caught on," Happy mumbles.

Gajeel thickly swallows. "No shit, genius."

* * *

**Author's Note: **So actually, I have a lot to say about this chapter but I feel like explaining some of the plot points/story structure would kind of defeat the purpose of me writing this. Also, I'm really short on time because it's literally hell week for me right now (huhuhuu finals week(s)). So maybe I'll talk more about my story at the end of the chapter. Maybe. Anyways, I hopefully made some of my opinions on aspects of the Gruvia ship and Gruvion dynamic clear in this story.

Also, I know I've been adding a lot of Gruvia stories to my favorites list but I never really gave a review. I know fanfic writers really prefer to be reviewed so I sincerely apologize for not being able to do so. The truth is, I read fanfics in between my classes and work, so I like to squeeze in as many fanfics as I can as possible. So that's why I usually just add stuff to my favorites. However, once finals week/s are over, I'll try to review all the stories in my favorite list. But I can't promise anything though.

Thank you for the reviews! Please tell me what you think if you have the time! :)


	6. Chapter 6

**6**

* * *

Juvia schools her surprised features before standing up and calmly striding over towards them. Even though her expression's completely placid, Gajeel can feel the waves of suspicion radiating off her. Everyone in the table immediately tenses, absolutely terrified of what's going to happen next. Only Erza looks calm but even Gajeel can see her fingers twitching from underneath the tabletop.

It's Meredy who speaks up first. She nervously swallows before brightly saying, "Hi Juvia!"

"Hi Meredy-san!" Juvia pleasantly says, her serious demeanor momentarily breaking at the sight of Meredy. When she sees Gray, she happily chirps, "Gray-sama!"

Gray gives her a weak smile. "Hi, Juvia."

"Chelia! What are you doing here?" Lyon demands as he comes up from behind Juvia.

"Oh, I was just hanging out with Meredy," Chelia pleasantly tells him. Then, to Juvia, she says in a crisp voice as she nods her head, "Love Rival."

"Juvia isn't your Love Rival!" Juvia crossly says. Lucy just smirks and mutters, "And the tables have turned..."

Then, suddenly, Juvia's serious demeanor is back again. She gives all of them a look, before folding her arms and quirking her lips up into a forced smile. She tries to look casual but Gajeel can see right through her and knows that it's just an act. "So, what are you all doing here?"

Lyon just looks happy that Juvia's attention has been redirected away from him. He looks annoyed though at Gray's presence, and he gives a little frown before saying, "Yeah...Gray, what the hell are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Gray snaps, his eyes narrowing.

Lyon bristles, looking severely pissed off. He wraps an arm around Juvia's shoulders and tries to steer her away from table (and probably away from Gray). "You know, Juvia I think I see our dessert melting, so maybe we should go—''

"Lyon-sama, we shouldn't leave without making conversation. It's rude," Juvia says, politely cutting him off ad giving him a stern look. Lyon stops talking and mutely nods his head, his jaw clenching. When he turns to look at Gajeel, a questioning look in his eyes, Gajeel just shrugs and swipes a finger across his neck, miming death—he might as well warn the bastard and let him know that things are about to go downhill real fast. Lyon catches on to what Gajeel's trying to say and his expression predictably sours.

Juvia turns away from Lyon to look at all of them in the table, her brows raised in an expectant look.

Everyone turns to look at him. Gajeel glares back at all of them because there's no way in hell he's going to do the explaining. On normal circumstances, he's pretty good at lying but even he's not sure he can bullshit his way out of this one.

Meredy decides to speak, hastily saying, "I'm just here because Jellal wanted banana pie."

"But what about everyone else?" Juvia demands.

Meredy starts twiddling with her thumbs, mumbling, "Oh, I don't know. They just...showed up out of nowhere."

Gajeel shoots her a dirty look. _Traitor_.

Another wave of uncomfortable silence falls over them. Gray is looking at the tabletop, furiously avoiding Juvia's gaze. Natsu, Chelia and Lucy are suddenly absorbed with their forks and spoons while Happy's wrapped around Lucy's arm, his face buried against her shoulder. Erza's calmly sitting on her chair, legs crossed, hands clasped on her knees, her expression impassable. She jabs Gajeel in the ribs and when Gajeel turns to glare at her, she just gives him a look that obviously says: _You explain to her._ He would've shook his head or something but Erza's fists are clenching and he's not stupid enough to want to die so he does what she's asking him to do even if he doesn't want to.

"What?" Gajeel gruffly says to Juvia. "Can't a group of friends just want to go to a nice cafe and spend time with each other?"

"Why are you all wearing such fancy clothing?" Juvia says, more curious than suspicious now. She eyes up his fancy white suit before turning to look at everyone else. Her eyes linger on Gray for awhile, her cheeks tainting red a little before moving on to where Lucy is sitting. She immediately narrows her eyes and the suspicious look on her face quickly returns.

"Why is Love Rival and Gray-sama wearing such fancy clothes?" A thought suddenly occurs to her and she immediately starts clutching at her cheeks in horror. "Is it because they are going on a date? Is Love Rival trying to steal Gray-sama's affections? Because Juvia won't allow it—''

"It's not like that!" Lucy hastily says before Juvia can finish her tirade. She starts waving her arms in a placating gesture. "If me and Gray were on a date, then what are Gajeel, Natsu, Erza, Happy, Meredy and Chelia doing here, huh?"

"Hmm...Juvia supposes that you're right," Juvia mumbles, although she still looks suspicious. Then, her eyes widen. "Unless Gray-sama is on a date with Gajeel-kun, Natsu-san, Erza-san, Chelia-san, Meredy-san—''

"Okay woman, just _stop_," Gajeel says, horrified that she's assumed that _he's_ on a date with Stripper.

"How could Gray-sama be so unfaithful?" Juvia wails as she covers her mouth with her hands.

"We're not in a date with him!" Gajeel indignantly says.

"But then if Gray-sama is not on a date with anyone, then what is everyone doing in this cafe wearing such elegant clothing?"

"We just felt like dressing up, Juvia. It does get rather boring when I keep wearing the same armor every day," Erza interjects.

Juvia frowns at her, her brows furrowing. "But you _aren't_ wearing a fancy dress like Lucy, Erza-san. You're wearing...a waitress's outfit."

Erza's eyes widen and she looks down, her cheeks flushing. Gajeel groans and slams the heel of his palm against his forehead—even he's forgotten that Titania has requipped into a waitress' outfit.

"Now that Juvia thinks about it...the waitress who passed by her and Lyon-sama's table looked a lot like Erza-san," Juvia contemplatively says.

"Yeah, actually you're right. Now that you mentioned it, the waitress passing by us a while ago _did_ look a lot like Erza," Lyon says, a wary look on his face.

Erza's calm demeanor starts fracturing. She gives Juvia a small smile, her fingers twisting the hem of her skirt. "Ahh...yes. Yes, this is a waitress' uniform. The only reason why I'm wearing this is because...because I work part time here."

"Why?" Juvia asks her in confusion.

"Well, even though I'm an S-Class mage, the money I receive from missions isn't enough to cover my monthly expenses. I need this job to help subsidize some of my expenditures," Erza says, quickly regaining her composure. She sounds pretty sure of herself so Gajeel has to give her props for that.

Juvia gives Erza a genuine look of concern. "Why didn't you tell Juvia you were having financial troubles, Erza-san? She could've lent you some money! Not that she's judging your choice of profession as a waitress but isn't this cafe a bit too far from the dorm? Doesn't it inconvenience you? If you really need the money, Juvia will help you find a job near the dorm. Or she could bake cakes for you to sell! Yes! She will bake cakes! Hundreds, no _thousands_ of them—''

"No, Juvia. It's quite alright," Erza gently says, interrupting Juvia before she can get carried away. She gives Juvia a re-assuring smile. "I won't be working here for long and it's really not as inconvenient as you think."

"Are you sure?" Juvia asks, her brows still all scrunched up.

"Of course," Erza says with a nod of her head. She tucks a stray lock of hair behind her ear before waving a hand in Lyon's direction. "You mustn't let us keep you from your evening."

"Yes, Juvia-chan. We still have to finish dessert," Lyon quickly says, looking eager to leave. Gajeel figures that Lyon's still terrified about the entire string-beans incident but it seems as if the idea of Juvia being in close proximity to Gray is an even worse option for him. Juvia looks as if she's stopped being suspicious anyways and he and everyone else seemed to have thrown her off the loop so he thinks that they're safe for now.

"Well...Juvia supposes that we should," Juvia uncertainly says.

"Yeah. You two should enjoy your date," Gray says, his voice lined with acid. He's trying to force a smile on but he's doing a really crappy job at it so he just ends up looking like a total creep.

Juvia rapidly shakes her head. "Oh no! Lyon-sama and Juvia aren't on a date! This is just a _friendly_ dinner!"

"Yeah. I could see that," Gray mumbles as he turns to look away from her.

"Is Gray-sama mad at Juvia? Is it because she stole Lyon-sama away from him?" Juvia asks, becoming increasingly panicked.

Gray's eyes widen and he flushes while Lyon incoherently mumbles something in protest.

"What!? _No_! No I'm not mad at you especially because of _that_!" Gray says.

"I don't like him _that_ way, Juvia!" Lyon adds.

"Lyon is certainly not gay!" Chelia defensively says.

"Eh?" Juvia says, clearly not buying any of their explanations.

"Never mind," Gray says. He gives her another smile, more genuine this time. "Just go on and finish your dessert. You wouldn't want to let your dinner go unfinished like what happened in Maceo's."

"Okay, Gray-sama—_wait_." Juvia freezes, her lips pinching together with newfound suspicion. "How do you know about Lyon-sama and Juvia's dinner at Maceo's?"

"Uh...what?" Gray says, flummoxed.

"You just said something about Juvia and Lyon's dinner in Maceo's. How did you know about it?" Juvia demands.

"Yeah, Gray, how did you know about our dinner in Maceo's?" Lyon interjects, as he gives Gray an irate, apprehensive look. "I never mentioned it to anyone."

Gajeel frowns. Seriously. If Lyon didn't tell a fucking soul, then how did every fucking person in Fiore find out about it?

"Ahh...you must have misheard me," Gray quickly says.

"No, Juvia's sure she didn't," Juvia insists. She holds his gaze, never wavering, her eyes searching. Lyon's at her side and he's silently looking at his shoes contemplatively. A long stretch of silence passes over them. Everybody else is trying to avoid looking at Juvia, Gray and Lyon's direction, including Gajeel. He knows where this situation is going. There's no fucking way he's going to get himself mixed up in this.

Gray nervously splutters, "Well, maybe it's because—''

"What's that?" Lyon interrupts, pointing at the speaker propped up at the center of the table. He moves closer, gently elbowing Juvia out of the way. He grabs the speaker and shakes it in his hand. "What the fuck is this?"

"Oi, oi! Be careful with that!" Gray snaps.

"What is this?" Lyon demands. When a burst of static erupts from the speaker, his expression darkens. "Is this...is this a speaker lacrima? Have you been listening in to our conversations?"

"_What_!? No! Of course not!" Gray defensively says.

"Then why do you have this with you?" Lyon snaps.

"We wanted to listen to some music!" Gray says.

"This isn't attached to any music player lacrima. In fact...this looks like a spy gear lacrima—'' He abruptly stops, his eyes widening as a thought crosses over him. "Wait a second. A waitress who looked like Erza passed by our table and dropped something..."

He trails off, his hands shaking. His brows are dipped low in anger.

"You _have_ been listening in on us!" Lyon snarls.

"So...so...is it true? Have you really been listening in on us, Gray-sama?" Juvia says, looking stricken.

"Well, actually...yes." Juvia and Lyon look stunned. Gray hastily tries to correct himself. "But...Juvia I swear I have a good explanation—''

Lyon cuts Gray off, his face mapped with white-hot fury. "And not only that! You've been following us all around! Since Maceo's! You've been following us around this _whole time_!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Gray manages but his voice sounds weak and scratchy. Everyone else in the table has gone silent and stiff, watching the entire scene unfold with apprehension.

"Don't insult my intelligence! I know you're lying! It all makes perfect sense. You and all your stupid little friends have been stalking us all evening..." He trails off, his voice shaking with anger.

"Juvia did hear Gray-sama's voice in the restaurant," Juvia hesitantly broaches.

"Lyon," Gray says as he attempts to get a word in. Sweat is beading across his forehead and his eyes look frantic. Juvia's just standing there, hands clasped together, looking anxious at the amount of tension present between Lyon and Gray. "Listen, before you jump to conclusions—''

_"You've been trying to ruin my date with Juvia!"_

That seems to have set Gray off. He savagely says, "You and Juvia aren't on a date! She said so herself! You're on a _friendly dinner_!"

Gajeel just rolls his eyes. Lyon's pulling out a lot heavy accusations towards Gray and _that's_ what he's concerned about?

"Is it true, Gray-sama? Have you really been following us around?" Juvia says.

Gray looks at her, his jaw clenching. He swallows several times, trying to regain his cool. Finally, he closes his eyes, scrubs a hand through his face and clenches his fist before looking up and saying, "Yes. Yes, I have been following both you and Lyon around. But it isn't for the reasons you think."

Instead of being upset or something, like Gajeel expected, Juvia's eyes widen and her mouth pops open. She starts clutching at her cheeks and swaying, a dreamy expression on her face. "Gray-sama was following Juvia and Lyon-sama around? Is it because...he's _jealous_?"

Gray looks poleaxed. He rapidly shakes his head and sputters, "What? No!"

Everyone else just exchanges looks because they all know that Gray not being jealous is absolute _bullshit_.

Juvia looks disappointed, her shoulders sagging and her lips creasing up into this little pout. She starts twiddling her thumbs, obviously embarrassed by her completely wrong assumption. "Oh."

Erza gives a pained smile and stands up, crossing her arms. In an imposing voice, she says, "I'm sure that once everyone calms down, we'll all be able to sort everything out—''

Lyon, who's been keeping quiet, suddenly speaks up, completely livid. There's realization dawning on his face.

"It was _you_." Lyon's voice is lacerating. "You were the cause behind...behind all that _shit_ that happened in the restaurant. You were behind _everything_! The waiter spilling the soup all over Juvia, the lamb tasting weird, that waiter being a perverted ass towards her! So many things have gone wrong tonight that it couldn't have been all coincidence!"

"Is it true, Gray-sama? Did you really do all those things?" Juvia asks him in a pleading voice, as if she's begging him for it to not be true. Then, in a firmer voice she says, "Gray-sama would never do something like that, Lyon-sama! It can't be true, right Gray-sama?"

"But it is, Juvia! There's no other explanation! He has the spy gear lacrima...he knows that our dinner in Maceo's went to shit...he did this to us!" Lyon seethes. "Admit it Gray!"

"Is it true Gray-sama? Please tell Juvia the truth," Juvia says in a softer voice. She meets his eyes, her gaze unwavering.

Gray thickly swallows. "Well, yes. But I mean...I _didn't_ do any of those —''

"So it is true!" she says, her face twisting in slight hurt and anger. Everyone blinks back at her in shock—Juvia's never angry with Gray. She glares at him and says, her voice lined with admonishment, "Lyon-sama could've been seriously hurt! He nearly vomitted all of his insides out!"

She looks as if she can't bring herself to believe it. "How could you do that!?"

"And that hot soup you probably paid the waiter to drop on Juvia! Do you have any idea how painful that might've been?" Lyon rages. "And that creep you paid to flirt with her! He was practically groping her!"

"Eh...it wasn't that serious, Lyon-sama," Juvia interjects.

Lyon ignores her and continues his tirade. "You bastard! Why the fuck would you do that!? It's our date! It was none of your business! You had no right to come barging in and ruining _everything_!"

"I didn't do any of those things!" Gray yells back. Which is kind of true, if you want to be technical about it. Gray didn't _exactly_ do any of those things—Natsu, Lucy, Erza and Chelia did. But Gajeel thinks that it's kind of Gray's fault anyways, because none of it would have happened if that idiot hadn't decided on spying on Juvia and Lyon and bringing his idiot friends with him.

"Stop lying!" Lyon snaps.

"Oh, as if you're so honest!" Gray says with a harsh, mocking laugh. "At least I didn't hire Gajeel to give me information about Juvia, just so I could make her think that we're compatible!"

Lyon suddenly pales, the anger in his face melting into an expression of anxiety. Gajeel stiffens, and grips at the table, trying to look at everywhere but Juvia. He doesn't know if he should blurt out some stupid excuse or punch Stripper in the face for having such a big mouth. She's looking at him and Lyon, first with confusion, then understanding, then hurt and anger.

"W-What?" Juvia says.

"Juvia before you freak out let me explain," Gajeel interjects, panicked.

"So...so...is that how Lyon-sama knew about Juvia's dislike for string beans? Because he paid Gajeel-kun to tell him!?" Juvia demands in consternation.

"No...I didn't...I wasn't...I just asked for his help," Lyon desperately says.

"So you don't really like The Strokes? Or Iron Maiden? You were just telling Juvia those things so that she would like you?" Juvia says, rounding up on Lyon. Her eyes are wide with anger and hurt. "Do you even know how to speak French? Or did you just learn it because you wanted to impress Juvia!?"

"No, of course not, Juvia-chan! Of course I love those bands and of course I can speak French—''

"What was the name of the truck they used to travel around and sleep in during the earlier days of their career?" Juvia abruptly interrupts him.

"Er...um...The Iron Truck?" Lyon helplessly says.

"So it is true! You have been lying to Juvia this whole time!" Juvia says, her disappointment palpable.

"No! I didn't lie about _everything_! I may have...may have said a few things that might not be true but it was only because I really _like_ you and I wanted you to like me back!" Lyon says in desperation.

"That isn't how you get a person to like you back!" Gray says, clearly enjoying the scolding Lyon's getting. "See Juvia? You can't trust him. He'll use tricks to—''

"And _you_!" Juvia hisses, turning around to face him. Gray blinks at her in shock and nervously adjusts his tie. "Don't think that Juvia's okay with what you did tonight! You can't just follow people around and listen in to their conversations! It's rude!"

"_You_ used to do it to me all the time!" Gray defensively protests.

"But Juvia didn't purposely poison anyone! Juvia can't believe that you would poison Lyon-sama's food! He's practically your _brother_! And Juvia can't believe that Gray-sama would pay someone to drop hot soup on her lap! Juvia thought that Gray-sama was her friend!" Juvia continues, the words coming out of her mouth in an angry half-yell. She gives him a fierce glare as she puts her hands on her hips. "And you know what? For the record, the hot soup really _did_ hurt Juvia! She's got red sores all over her thighs now because of _you_!"

"I didn't do that! I would never do anything like that to you!" Gray sincerely says, looking offended that she would even suggest it.

"And Gajeel-kun! Juvia thought that she could trust you! That you wouldn't just go volunteering _intimate_ information about her to the next person you see for _money_!" Juvia says, her lower lip trembling and her eyes shining with hurt. Gajeel's throat constricts and he tries to suppress the frisson of shame pulsing through his chest. He can't stand her looking at him like that.

"It's not like that!" Gajeel says.

"How much did you tell Lyon-sama!? Did you tell him about Juvia's parents or that incident in Freesia?" Juvia demands.

"No, of course I wouldn't tell him shit like that! I only told him the stupid things—''

"So Juvia's taste in music and dislike for string beans is _stupid_?"

"You know what!? You're blowing things way out of proportion!"

"No, Juvia thinks that she has every right to be angry because everyone has been _lying_ to her this whole evening!" Juvia explodes. She stares at Gray in frustration. "And...and Juvia can't believe that Gray-sama would do this. She thought that he would be better than this."

Gray gives her a pleading look while Lyon touches her wrist, trying his best to say something. Gajeel just stares at her, completely poleaxed to the point where he's unable to say anything. Lucy's wrapping her arms around Happy tighter, while Happy's nervously twitching. Meredy and Chelia are exchanging troubled looks while Erza is determinedly playing with the hem of her skirt. Even Natsu has the good sense to look uncomfortable.

"Juvia, I wouldn't...I mean I'm not..." Gray trails off.

Juvia straightens herself out and stiffly says, "Juvia would like to go home now,"

"Yes," Lyon says, rapidly nodding his head. "Of course. I'll just pay the bill—''

"Juvia can walk home by herself," Juvia mumbles.

"Juvia—''

She turns around and storms out of the cafe without another word.

* * *

Nobody speaks for a very long time. Lyon's just standing there, looking a little numb while Gray's staring at the tabletop in complete shock. Gajeel figures that it's probably because Juvia practically tore into him and shit and she's never done that before, _ever_, even when Gray's sometimes being an asshole for no reason—the girl practically thinks that the sun shines out his ass. Everyone else looks surprised as fuck too and he can't exactly blame them. What just went down was totally nuts and Juvia freaking out was the last thing anyone ever expected her to do. Even he never thought she'd be that pissed. The last time he saw her as mad as she had been now was back when they were in Phantom Lord.

"Excuse me miss, but I have your banana pie right here," a waiter says, breaking the silence.

Meredy turns to look at him and she smiles before taking her wallet out and handing over a few bills. She mutely takes the carton of banana pie and sets in on the table before awkwardly drumming her fingers against her lap. Then, she looks at Lyon and says, "I think you should go after her and apologize."

Lyon snaps out of his daze and slowly nods his head. He says, "Right. Yes. I'll do that. I'll just...pay the bill and be on my way..."

"I should go too," Gray says and Lyon immediately scowls, his fists clenching and unclenching.

"You're not going anywhere," Lyon hisses. "The reason why this happened in the first place was because you had to intervene!"

"_No_. This wouldn't have happened if you had just been honest to her during your date!" Gray retorts.

"All's fair in love and war, Gray. I have to take whatever advantage I can get to have her!" Lyon says. "You wouldn't understand. You practically have her heart already."

"You took her out on a date!" Gray snaps back, saying it as if it's the most horrible thing that Lyon could ever do.

"You _didn't_ take her out on a date?" Lyon shoots back.

"So what? That just gives you an excuse to go out with her?"

Lyon rolls his eyes and adjusts the cuffs of his suit. "She's not yours Gray. And just because she loves you, does not mean that no one else is allowed to try to win her heart. If you recall, you've already told her _no_. If you're not going to do anything about her feelings for you, then you should give other guys a fighting chance."

He walks away, not giving Gray any chance to reply. He walks over to his table, pulls some money out of his wallet, places it on the table and walks out of the cafe. Gray sits in his chair, looking stricken, his fingers unconsciously unbuttoning his shirt. He's already taken his blazer and tie off and there's this tense expression in his eyes. Gajeel realizes that Gray probably took Juvia's admonishment pretty hard and that the idiot really does care about her feelings and her opinions of him and wants to fix this or whatever.

It's good, Gajeel figures, because at least now he knows _for sure_ that Stripper is sincere in his feelings for Juvia.

"Don't let that asshole win, Gray. Go after your woman!" Natsu suddenly says, slamming a fist on the table. Lucy nods her head in agreement.

"Aye, sir!" Happy says.

"She's not my woman," Gray miserably says as he slumps against the table.

"Then go and make her your woman, you idiot!" Natsu retorts, grabbing Gray by the lapels of his shirt and shaking him.

"Yes. You should go," Erza says. Then, she turns to look at Gajeel and gives him a fairly ominous look. "And you must go with him. It is only fitting that you help Gray smooth things over with Juvia."

There's no way he's getting involved in that crap again. After this whole thing, he's not stupid enough to interfere in Juvia's love life.

"Hell, no—''

"_Now_," Erza thunders as she points a sword at his throat. Shit. How the fuck did she even get that so fast?

"Okay, yeah, fine," he mumbles. He stands up and gestures at Gray to do the same. "Come on, Stripper. Let's go find Sprinkler."

Gray puts his blazer back on and the two of them walk out of the cafe, not really speaking to each other. Tracking Juvia down is easy enough and she isn't exactly too far off. When they get to where she is, she's taken her high-heeled shoes off and she's running her hands across her arms, looking slightly stiff from the cold. Lyon's in front of her and he's trying to tell her something, his expression desperate and pleading. Her face has softened a little but Gajeel can tell that she's still upset. Juvia's like, the most _dramatic_ person ever, so she's probably not going to get over tonight very quickly, no matter how much Gray or Lyon apologizes.

He's about to tell Stripper this but the idiot's already rushing towards Lyon and Juvia.

"Juvia!" Gray says as he approaches them.

"Gray-sama?" Juvia says. Her lips are still pressed into a frown but the corners of her mouth are twitching, like she's trying really hard not to style. God, it's so pathetic. She can't even legit look scary anymore.

"We're in the middle of a conversation Gray," Lyon says, looking annoyed.

Gray glares back at Lyon but he nods his head and says, "Fine. After the two of you talk then. But at least let me give her my blazer. She looks a little cold."

"It's fine," Lyon says, his eyes widening as if he's just realized that Juvia's cold. "She wouldn't want your blazer. I'll just give her mine."

"Stop talking for her. Why don't you let her answer huh?" Gray retorts.

"Fine! We'll let her choose," Lyon says. They both turn to look at Juvia and start taking their blazers off. Juvia's eyes widen, clearly not expecting this.

"So, Juvia-chan which jacket would you like to have?" Lyon pleasantly asks her.

"Um...Juvia doesn't really feel cold," Juvia mumbles, unsure of how to react to the situation. "And well, she can always use her boiling water form..."

"In that case, you should take my blazer. It isn't as thick," Gray says, completely ignoring what she's just said. He hastily offers it up to her.

Lyon glares at him and says, "She doesn't want your cheap blazer! Look at that gaudy fabric! It's going to make her itch all over."

"What did you just call my blazer?"

"I called it cheap, that's what!"

"Gray-sama, Lyon-sama—''

"At least it doesn't look as stupid as your blazer!"

"My blazer happens to be of the latest style!"

"It still looks stupid!"

"_You_ look stupid! Juvia-chan would be better off wearing my blazer! It will keep her warm!"

"Mine will make her feel warmer! She's worn it before so she already knows how it feels like when she's putting it on!"

"Well, my blazer is of the best quality and will be able to treat her right!"

"Doesn't mean that my blazer wouldn't!"

Somehow, Gajeel thinks that they're not talking about blazers anymore

"Juvia deserves better than your crappy blazer!"

"As if your blazer is good enough for her! Your blazer doesn't even _know_ her!"

Juvia catches Gajeel's eyes and instead of looking pissed, she gives him a pleading look and mouths at him to help her break up Gray and Lyon's argument. Gajeel nods his head and agrees because he really wants to get on her good side again and stopping Gray and Lyon from killing each other isn't really all that hard.

Before he can get to where they are, Gray and Lyon stop arguing and turn to face her, both of their hands outstretched. Lyon says, "So which one are you picking Juvia?"

"Er...well—''

"Stop pressuring her you asshole!" Gray snaps.

"I'm not pressuring her—''

"Please stop. Juvia doesn't feel cold, anymore. Honestly and—Lyon-sama! Gray-sama! Your clothes!" Juvia screeches, flustered. Both Gray and Lyon have somehow stripped down to their boxers. Gray is advancing towards Lyon, fists clenched while Lyon is giving Gray taunting looks.

Before Gajeel can intervene, Lyon says, "You're just mad because if you hadn't fucked up my date with Juvia, things would have gone splendidly! Admit it Gray! I'm better than you at _everything_! Even at romance!"

Gray's eyes narrow and he snarls, "Shut up you bastard!"

He lunges towards Lyon and the two end up on the ground, grappling and punching and kicking at each other. Juvia stares at them, transfixed for a few moments, her cheeks red (probably thinking of ecchi stuff—Juvia's never admitted it to anyone but Gajeel knows that she's a huge yaoi fangirl) before snapping back into focus. She looks at him and yells, "Gajeel-kun! Help me stop them!"

A bunch of people have gathered around them now, looking curious and pointing at them. Juvia looks really embarrassed as she crouches down and tugs at Gray's arm. Gajeel tries to pull Lyon away from Gray but for some reason he ends up being kicked on the face instead. He loudly curses, vision blurry before standing up. Juvia's not having any luck separating the two boys either and her body slowly starts transforming into its liquid form. Just as it looks as if she's about to use her magic to stop the fight, the skirt of her dress somehow gets snagged under Lyon's foot, ripping it apart and exposing her legs and her underwear.

She loses her balance and trips, ending up in between Gray and Lyon amidst all the fighting. She's on top of Gray, straddling him, but Lyon's right behind her, pressing against her back, trying to land a punch on to Gray's face. Juvia's screaming at them to stop while Lyon and Gray are screaming insults at each other. It's actually kind of funny and Gajeel knows that he should be stopping them instead of laughing, but he can't really help himself.

A police officer suddenly arrives before Gajeel can intervene. They quickly disentangle, Gray, Juvia and Lyon, stern looks on their faces. Before anyone of them can protest, the officers slap handcuffs on their wrists. Juvia's mouth wordlessly pops open while Gray and Lyon start shouting in protest.

"What's going on? Why are you arresting us?" Gray demands.

"I demand to be released immediately!" Lyon cries out.

"All three of you are arrested for counts of public indecency. You are grossing out a couple of civilians," one of the officers say.

"P-Public indecency?" Juvia splutters. She looks around and her cheeks grow even redder when she realizes that both Gray and Lyon are completely naked. She doesn't look any better either. Her dress has been ripped up at the bottom so she's showing a lot of leg and a bit of her underwear.

"We're going to have to take you with us unless you three can pay the fines of course," the officer says, forcing the three of them on their feet.

"Wait...Juvia isn't...this isn't—''

"Whatever polyamorous relationship you have with each other, I suggest you do it in _private_," the officer sternly tells her. "This is no place for a threesome. Children pass by here, you know."

"Juvia isn't in a threesome with them!" Juvia protests in mortification as the officers lead them away.

Gajeel starts laughing and all three of them give him nasty looks. And yeah, maybe he should've been more helpful or something but honestly, this is the most interesting thing to happen this evening.

And also, he's kind of pissed at all of them and not doing anything or not bailing them out seems like the perfect payback.

Lyon's loaded anyways—it's not like he won't be able to spring them out by paying the fines.

* * *

**Author's Note: **So, I have a really, lengthy explanation as to why I think Juvia's upset. But I'll be posting it at the end of the fic because I really want to hear what you guys think of first (also, I am drowning in a million research papers huhuhuhu). I really loved writing this chapter because of the last scene! Just thinking about something as ridiculous as that happening to Gruvion always makes me laugh. A lot of people have been messaging me about the oneshots I promised on uploading and I will, I promise, I just have to get through this semester first.

Thank you for all the reviews! If you have the time, please tell me what you think of this chapter! :)


	7. Chapter 7

**7**

* * *

Juvia doesn't show up to the guild the next day so he decides to ditch the mission he's got lined up for to go to the nearest candy shop and buy her an entire bag of saltwater taffy. She doesn't eat them often, because it's unhealthy or something and they're only sold at this candy store that's pretty far from where the guild and dorms are, but she's always loved them, even back during their Phantom Lord days. So he figures that it can't hurt to give her a bag when he goes to apologize.

And in case anyone's wondering, Lyon's _not_ giving him the rest of the money. And it's fine, really. He's already got three thousand five hundred jewels and while it may not be enough for a new guitar, it's still a pretty hefty sum. He can pay off a good chunk of his rent or maybe he can use it to buy himself and maybe Levy, a nice dinner, when they come back from one of their missions together. So yeah, he's not exactly upset that he's only getting half of the money. It's not like he didn't try to hold up his end of the bargain, anyways.

Everyone in the guild is _pissed_ because no one exactly wins. After what happened last night, he doesn't think that Juvia's eager to go on another date with Lyon and she's still kind of mad at Gray. So basically, she's not hopping on either the Team Lyon or Team Gray train any time soon and Cana and everyone else lose a lot of money. At least Juvia didn't have to stay long in the holding cell though. Gajeel was pretty worried that she had ended up staying there the whole night because he had completely forgotten that Gray and Lyon stripped all their clothes off and that probably included the wallets in their pockets. But Juvia brought money with her and she had enough sense not to lose her purse in the scuffle, so she was able to at least pay the fine and leave the police headquarters.

That doesn't mean she isn't pissed though.

Slipping past the dorm guardian and Titania is pretty easy. The dorm guardian's busy eating cake and Erza seems to understand why he's here so she gives him a free pass. He walks towards her door and doesn't waste time in banging his fist against it.

"Oi! Juvia! Open up!"

Juvia opens the door moments later and when she sees him, her face scrunches up into a little frown.

"What?" she says.

Gajeel holds the bag of taffy up and gives it a little shake. "I've got taffy."

"Is this supposed to be you apologizing?" Juvia says, completely unimpressed.

"Do you want the taffy or not?" he gruffly says because fuck, he's just gotten here. She can't expect him to say the s-word right away. It's not how he rolls. He needs to ease in to it. (What? He doesn't do apologies.)

Juvia chews on her bottom lip contemplatively. She's trying to look annoyed but Gajeel can see her eyeing up the taffy so he knows that she's not as mad at him as she's trying to make him think she is. He's about to say something when he catches the smell of cinnamon wafting from inside her apartment.

"Wait. Are you baking cookies?" he asks. Holy shit, he _loves_ her cookies.

Juvia nods her head and folds her arms. "Yes. But, Juvia's not giving Gajeel-kun any."

He wiggles the taffy bag and says, "I'll trade you for a batch."

"Taffy's not just going to make everything better," Juvia says, her lips pressing into a pout.

"Come on, Sprinkler. You love taffy," Gajeel says, giving her a crooked grin.

Juvia looks at him for a few seconds, not saying anything. Finally she drops her shoulders and sighs. "Fine."

She opens the door wider and lets him in. He tosses the bag of taffy towards her and she clumsily catches it in her hands, caught off guard by the movement. She glares at him, annoyed but he just snickers and makes fun of her for having poor reflexes. He ignores her annoyed protests and walks over to the kitchen. When he gets there, his eyes widen and he doesn't know if he should laugh or be seriously freaked out.

On the kitchen counter are rows and rows of trays of cookies and cakes and bread. On her stove is a pot full of what looks like this syrupy, chocolate sauce thing and her oven is piping hot, two trays of what look like muffins shoved inside it.

"What the fuck?" Gajeel says.

Juvia defensively says, "Juvia was stressed."

Oh, right. She bakes when she's stressed.

"Do you have any idea what Juvia had been through last night? She was mistaken for a hooker because of what she was wearing! The guy in the holding cell she was in actually asked how much Juvia paid for her services!" Juvia hisses as she takes a piece of taffy out and starts unwrapping it.

"He didn't do anything to you, did he?" Gajeel says, concerned. He knows that she can take care of herself, obviously, but he still worries about her and the idea of some asshole touching her inappropriately or something really ticks him off.

Juvia rolls her eyes. "Of course not. But the police officers mistook Juvia for being in a polyamourous relationship! They even asked Juvia how a threesome worked! And Juvia had to go home wearing her ripped dress!"

Gajeel starts laughing because come on, it's actually pretty funny. "Ghihi. Serves you right for getting it on with the two strippers in the street."

"Juvia was not 'getting it on' with Lyon-sama and Gray-sama in the street!" Juvia protests, flustered. She lightly whacks him on the arm, her cheeks puffing up as she tries to control her temper. "Stop teasing, Gajeel-kun! This is all your fault!"

"Hey, I'm not the one who freaked out and stormed out of the cafe!" Gajeel protests.

"Juvia may have...reacted far too strongly than what should have been appropriate," Juvia grudgingly admits.

"Really? 'Cause I hadn't noticed," Gajeel sarcastically says.

Juvia glares at him and pokes him on the arm, saying as she furiously chews her taffy. "Fine! So Juvia may have overreacted! But she was having a very bad night, thanks to you! And she had to find out that Gray-sama was lying to her. She never thought that Gray-sama would do something as awful."

Gajeel snorts. "Well, just goes to show you Stripper isn't as perfect as you think he is."

Juvia's brows pull together in irritation. "Don't insult Gray-sama, Gajeel-kun!"

"I'm not! I'm just trying to tell you to stop treating Stripper as if the sun shines out of his ass. Stop treating him like he's fucking god or something because he can be as much of an asshole like the rest of us," Gajeel gruffly says.

"Juvia's not like that! She knows that Gray-sama isn't...isn't perfect," Juvia defensively says as she starts twiddling her thumbs.

"_Please_. You're practically blinded by his ass-rays!" Gajeel snorts. "Geez, you should tone it down a bit, woman."

"Gajeel-kun!" Juvia says, puffing her cheeks up.

"Whatever," Gajeel shrugs, clearly over this conversation.

"And most of all, Gajeel-kun went and told Lyon-sama things he shouldn't have known about Juvia!" Juvia says, continuing her tirade.

That set him off. It's like she's implying that he can't be trusted or something. He narrows his eyes against her and says, "If you hadn't exploded and actually let me _explain_, you would've known that I was only helping Lyon out 'cause I care about you and I wanted you to forget about Stripper."

"Why would you want Juvia to forget about Gray-sama?" she demands.

"I dunno. 'Cause I felt like you weren't really going anywhere with him. And I hated seeing you so sad over him—''

"Juvia was never sad over Gray-sama. In fact, he makes her happy! _All the time_! And he's always sweet to her...even when he...even when he makes it clear that he doesn't return Juvia's feelings..." Juvia corrects him, flushing and he can tell that she means it too. And yeah, he guesses that Stripper is always nice to her and makes her happy and doesn't try to avoid her, even when he's aware that she's all crazy over him. Gray hangs out with her a lot, even when they're not on jobs together.

He decides to continue anyways. "And Lyon is _exactly_ like Stripper...I mean, they're both ice mages and they both strip and they're both okay-looking I guess so I thought—''

Juvia looks offended. "Juvia doesn't just like Gray-sama because he's handsome and he's an ice mage and he takes his clothing off at every second interval! She's not like that! She likes him because aside from Gajeel-kun, he was the first person to be kind to her in a long time! He saved her and treated her nicely even when she was the enemy! He showed Juvia how to trust and love and be happy! He took away the sadness in Juvia's heart, the rain that's been plaguing her all her life!"

"Well, sheesh! Forgive me for just wanting you to give Lyon a try!" Gajeel says, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Juvia can't turn off her feelings for Gray-sama just like that! She _loves_ him!" Juvia retorts, as she pops another piece of taffy into her mouth.

"Okay, okay, I get it! But I don't see what I was doing so wrong! I just wanted you to be happy and shit! What's so wrong with that?" Gajeel says.

"Because Gajeel-kun told Lyon-sama some stuff he shouldn't have known!" She sighs and leans against the counter, ruefully playing with the taffy in her hands. "And...Juvia's just disappointed, she guesses. She was just really happy to know that she and Lyon-sama liked a lot of things but then...she finds out that he had just been pretending this whole time."

"Cut the guy some slack, Juves. It's just cause he really likes you. And for the record, I didn't tell him anything too intimate. Or embarrassing," Gajeel says as he takes one of the cookies off the tray and pops it into his mouth.

Juvia gives him a skeptical look. "Are you sure you didn't tell Lyon-sama about the incident in Freesia?"

Gajeel starts laughing, sprays of cookie crumbs flying off his mouth. "Ghihihi. No. But it would've pretty funny to see his face if he knew about it—ow! Fuck! Did you just throw a cookie at me!?"

"You wouldn't dare tell him!" Juvia says as she arms herself with another cookie.

"If you keep throwing cookies at me, I might tell Gray too—''

"Gajeel-kun!" Juvia screeches as she latches herself on to his back. "_Don't_!"

"Ow!" Gajeel says as he tries to shake Juvia off. "Get off me woman! I won't tell okay!"

"But Juvia knows that you will!"

"No, I won't!"

"Gajeel-kun!"

"If you don't get off me, I will nail you to a tree!" Gajeel hisses as Juvia finally unwraps her arms from his neck.

"Fine," she mumbles as she stalks off. She starts stirring the chocolate sauce thing and he leans against the counter and gets another cookie. The two of them don't say anything for awhile. Juvia finishes stirring her sauce and she moves away from the stove, taking another piece of taffy and unwrapping it. Gajeel's about to tease her when he notices that she looks a little sad. She's playing with the taffy wrapper now, her eyes downcast, her lips pressed together in a small line.

"What's with the face?" Gajeel says as he stuffs another cookie into his mouth.

"Juvia's just..sad, she guesses. If even Gajeel-kun thinks that Gray-sama will never like her back, then...then maybe it really is hopeless," Juvia mumbles, her eyes fixed on the taffy wrapper. She looks like she's on the verge of crying and Gajeel starts panicking because he seriously cannot handle her when she's like this. Okay, fine, maybe he sort of can but that doesn't mean he actually enjoys it.

"Do you think that Juvia should just give up on Gray-sama, Gajeel-kun?" Juvia asks him, a serious look on her face.

Gajeel blinks at her, surprised at her question. He honestly never expected her to even think about something like that—she's always so optimistic and sure of herself that he thought that the idea of Gray never liking her back is something that has never crossed her mind. But here she is, standing in front of him, looking as sad as fuck, her fingers playing with the taffy wrapper, her bottom lip quivering. He always thought that she was just completely oblivious to the fact that you know, Gray isn't interested in her. But that's not the case, obviously and he suddenly realizes that maybe that's why she tries so fucking hard to win Stripper over.

"Nah," he says after a while. He shoves another cookie into his mouth.

"Eh?" Juvia says, immediately perking up.

"He digs you," Gajeel nonchalantly says.

"Really?" Juvia says, her eyes widening.

"Yeah. He's just being really stupid about it," Gajeel says with a small shrug.

She gives him a skeptical look. "You're not just saying that to make Juvia feel better?"

"Scout's honor, Sprinkler," Gajeel says as he flashes her an impish smile.

And he means it, anyways. He's seen enough to know that Stripper really cares about her, more than what any regular friend would. That idiot likes her back and even though he's being such a tool about it, at least Gajeel knows that Gray's not stringing Juvia along. And then, there's the fact that Gray really _knows_ her—and they've only known each other for a little over a year. Gajeel's known Juvia for a long time and even he didn't know a couple of shit that Gray knew about her. He figures that if Gray knows all that stuff about her, then he's either a.) stalking her or b.) genuinely spending a lot of time with her. It's probably the latter, though because he knows that Gray and Juvia usually partner up for missions. And they seem to be genuinely comfortable each other and they balance each other out and stuff. Like she's all high-strung and cray-cray and Gray's kind of level-headed but then sometimes, it's Juvia's who's the calm and level-headed one and Gray's the batshit crazy one. Plus, Stripper's not a bad guy and Gajeel knows that even though he can be an ass sometimes, he'll treat Juvia right. And that's all that really matters in the end, at least to him.

"So does that mean Gajeel-kun gives Gray-sama his blessing?"

"What?" he says, flummoxed. What is he? Her father?

"Juvia cares about your approval," Juvia tells him.

"Yeah, he's okay, I guess," Gajeel mumbles although he's honestly kind of flattered that she'd ask for his opinion and actually take it into consideration. It makes him feel like he's her big brother or something and she's giving him the permission to watch over her and look out for her. (And to beat the living crap out of Stripper if he ever hurts her in any way.)

"Juvia's sorry she overreacted," she tells him.

He grins at her. "I'm sorry I interfered in your love life. I shouldn't have done that. I swear that I'll never do it again. Or maybe I should've helped you get together with Stripper instead of Lyon."

"Yeah, you should've," Juvia giggles.

"So we good?"

"Yes." Juvia suddenly gives him a mischievous grin and pokes him on the arm. "Hmm...you know what Gajeel-kun? Maybe Juvia should interfere in _your_ love life. She knows for a fact that you and Levy-san have been getting really cozy lately..."

Images of Juvia dragging him on dates and making Levy-dolls and generally just doing _crazy_ shit flashes across his mind.

He gives a terrified shudder and grimaces. "_Fuck, no_. Nobody wants that."

* * *

She spends the rest of the day baking, eating saltwater taffy and finding seventy different ways to scare and annoy Gajeel. She does it mostly by telling him all the plans she has lined up for getting him and Levy together and when he starts yelling in protest, she just laughs and tells him that she _needs_ to do it ("Because after all, Gajeel-kun, Juvia has to repay your kindness for setting Juvia up with Lyon-sama"). She bakes three more batches of cookies and bread (because even though she's not stressed anymore, she's already mixed the batter up and it would be waste not to pop it in the oven) and Gajeel makes fun of her for it. She doesn't really mind though because she knows that he's very nice, even when he tries hard not to show it. And she's glad that he told her that Gray might, sort of like her back and that he's okay with it—it's a little silly, but she sees Gajeel as a big brother and she values his opinions.

The two of them sit there, on her kitchen floor, eating cookies and saltwater taffy, just talking like they used to, for the good part of the day. Then Gajeel gets up and grabs three trays of cookies and tells her that he wants to bring them home. She laughs and scolds him for making a mess before grabbing a tupperware and carefully placing all of the cookies in it. She hands it over to him and he gives her a small noogie on the head a he walks out of the door, tupperware of cookies carefully tucked under his arm.

Lyon comes by an hour later to apologize, saying that he managed to sneak past the dorm guardian and Erza just to get here (which is very nice of him). He gives her another bouquet of flowers, lilies this time and she smiles and tells him that it's okay. He's really very sweet and what he did for her was very romantic in a sense—no one has ever liked her so much that they would pay her best friend to dish info about her before. And she can't really fault him because she supposes that if given the chance, she would've taken the same opportunity to be with Gray.

She probably won't be able to lie to Gray though, even for just a moment; she is who she is and she doesn't think that she can change that, even if she did somehow know his exact preferences. She loves Gray but she loves herself too and even she's not crazy enough to _completely_ change herself for another person. She doesn't think that Gray-sama would want that anyways—she thinks that if he does, by some miracle, end up returning her feelings, he's going to like her for who she is, her crazy quirks included. He's just that kind of guy. He's not a jerk like Bora.

"Let me make it up to you, Juvia-chan," Lyon earnestly tells her. "Let me take you out on another date. Or friendly dinner, rather."

Juvia shakes her head and gives him a wry smile. "It's okay, Lyon-sama. You don't have to make anything up for Juvia because she already forgives you. And besides, she thinks that she's had enough dates for now."

"But this time, I won't lie to you or pretend to share your interests! I'll be honest this time! I promise—''

"Lyon-sama," Juvia gently tells him. She places a hand on his shoulder, firmly meeting his eyes. "You're a really sweet guy. And Juvia thinks that any girl would be lucky to have you. But she can't lead you on like this. Not when she doesn't feel the same way. It wouldn't be fair."

Lyon's lips quirk into a resigned, bitter smile. "So this is it, huh? There's really no chance of you returning my feelings?"

"Juvia would still like us to be friends," Juvia earnestly says as she latches on to his arm. Internally, she winces at how incredibly cliché it sounds. "Please don't act all weird towards Juvia, Lyon-sama! She really does enjoy spending time with you! Honestly! She likes you!"

"But just not in the same way you like Gray," Lyon sighs. He silently stares at the ground for a few minutes. Then, he looks up, squares his shoulders and nods his head. "Right. Well, if you truly feel that way Juvia, then I'll step down. _For real_ this time. I'm the kind of man who knows when to quit."

"Juvia hopes that you won't try to avoid her or anything like that," Juvia worriedly says.

"Of course I won't. I'd never miss the opportunity to be around you," Lyon sincerely tells her.

"Are you mad Lyon-sama?" Juvia asks, because she really doesn't want to lose his friendship and she knows that he means well.

"At you, Juvia-chan? _Never_," Lyon sweetly tells her.

He stuffs his hands in pockets and nervously hems in his place. "What if he won't return your feelings? Are you really willing to wait and risk it?"

She looks at her shoes, silently mulling it over.

"Yes. And if...if Gray-sama ends up liking someone else then Juvia will be like Lyon-sama. She'll step down," she uncertainly says, after a moment of contemplation. She playfully pokes him on the arm. "She's the kind of woman who knows when to quit too."

It's going to hurt her and saying the words felt so horrible, like she can't even bear to think about it. But she loves Gray and she wants him to be happy and if him being happy means letting him go, then she's more than willing to put aside her feelings for him and be mature. And if she's going to be honest, she's thought about this scenario, far too many times. She's not naive enough to think that everything's going to fall into place and she'll just get everything she wants. She's lived through the death of her parents and a lifetime of loneliness in the orphanage so she knows that sometimes, life really does just suck. She thinks that if that time ever comes, she'll be prepared at least. She will be hurt but prepared.

"Well, I hope for your sake, he doesn't keep you waiting for too long," Lyon tells her.

Then, Juvia surprises him by leaning forward and giving him a soft kiss on the cheek. Lyon stiffens, face red, eyes wide with shock. She whispers in his ear, "Thank you for the date, Lyon-sama."

She doesn't want him to get the wrong idea but he definitely deserves it. He stands there for a few moments, in stunned silence, before meeting her eyes and giving her a soft, lopsided smile.

The two of them talk for awhile and when Lyon tells her that he has to go, she makes him bring an entire container full of bread and cookies. He says goodbye before quietly slipping out of the apartment, his spirits seeming higher than it had been when Juvia had turned him down.

She busies herself by tidying up the kitchen and fixing up a hole in one of her dresses. Then, she takes a long, hot shower before slipping into her pajamas (the cute ones with little, yellow butterflies). She's a little disappointed that Gray hadn't showed up, but then again she had expected it. He's kind of like Gajeel. It takes a while for him to approach people, especially after an awkward misunderstanding.

She's about to curl up in her bed with a nice book Lucy lent her and her Gray-sama doll when she decides that she feels a little too hot. She takes her pajama bottoms off before wiggling underneath her covers, the book in her hands and her Gray-sama doll tucked in her arms.

She's just finished reading the first chapter when someone knocks on her door. She slips out of her bed and pads across the living room floor, not bothering to put her pants on. It's probably just Erza or Bisca, asking her for help in whatever they're cooking. It happens fairly often since she is a pretty good cook and the other girls are sometimes really hopeless at making food. She's somehow become the go-to culinary advisor in the dorm.

She wrenches the door open, her eyes widening when she sees that it's Gray.

"Juvia!" he says, his cheeks flushing when he sees that she's only wearing her pajama top.

"G-Gray-sama! J-Juvia didn't expect you here!" she sputters, her arms flailing. Gray's cheeks grow redder. Juvia pauses, becoming even more embarrassed when she realizes that very slight movements can cause her panties to be seen. Steams (literally) escapes from her ears and nose when she suddenly remembers that she's wearing her blue, lacy panties—the ill-fitting ones that show off a good chunk of her butt.

"Just let Juvia put on some clothes and er...or let her get a robe—''

"It's okay. I don't mind," Gray blurts out.

Juvia blinks at him, giving him a blank look.

"I mean, I won't be here long and—you really don't have to go to the trouble—it's not like I want to look at you naked—not that you look bad naked—you probably have a really good body—not that I would know cause I haven't been staring at your breasts or ass or legs or anything—I mean, _I'm not a pervert_!" Gray says, the words escaping from his mouth in stuttering gasps.

Juvia giggles a little. He looks cute when he's all flustered like this. It's very rare that she sees him this way, because it's always _her_ that's reduced to a blubbering mess whenever they're next to each other.

"Okay," Juvia says. She steps aside and opens the door wider. "Would you like to come in Gray-sama?"

"N-No," Gray mumbles. "Erza would probably kill me."

"Oh. Right," Juvia says. Erza-san takes her job as the dorm guardian very seriously. "Maybe Juvia shouldn't have let Lyon-sama and Gajeel-kun in. If Erza-san caught them—''

"Lyon was here?" Gray interrupts, looking annoyed.

"Yes. But it wasn't like that! Juvia and Lyon-sama were just talking! And Juvia wasn't wearing this," Juvia hastily tells him.

"Oh. Okay," Gray says, quickly schooling his features. He clears his throat and cards his fingers through his hair. "Well, I guess I'm here...to apologize too. For...for trying to ruin your date—''

"Friendly dinner—''

"Friendly dinner with Lyon. It wasn't any of my business and I didn't have the right to interfere. I'm sorry. And about the food poisoning and the hot soup I would never—''

"It's okay. Gajeel-kun told Juvia everything," Juvia interrupts. She nervously twists the hem of her shirt. "Juvia guesses that she needs to say sorry too. Juvia...Juvia may have overreacted. Just a bit."

Gray grins at her. "Well, me and Lyon did get you arrested for public indecency so I think you being mad is justified..."

"Juvia will never live that down!" she says as she clutches at her cheeks.

"Hey, neither will I! Now what will everyone think of me!" Gray says as he shakes his head. "I'm not the kind of guy who _shares_."

There's something in the way he said it that makes her insides twist.

"Can Juvia ask you a question, Gray-sama?"

"Yeah, sure."

"_Why_ did you try to ruin Lyon-sama and Juvia's date?"

"W-What?"

"Juvia asked you—''

"I heard what you said," Gray mumbles, looking more and more flustered.

"You never answered Juvia's question," Juvia says, as she looks up at him from beneath her lashes and nervously bites at her bottom lip.

Gray shifts in his place uncomfortably, looking down and avoiding her eyes. He doesn't say anything for a long time, his hands stuffed in his pocket, the heels of his feet shuffling against the floor. A million romantic possibilities start racing across her head. Maybe, he'll tell her that she's the love of his life. Or maybe he'll say that he can't even bear the idea of her being in close proximity with another guy. Or maybe he'll say that he wants to be with her forever. Juvia's face steadily grows warmer with each scenario.

Finally, he meets her eyes and gives a nonchalant shrug, "It's because I care about you."

Juvia's shoulders sag in disappointment. It's not exactly the answer she wanted to hear. "What?"

"You're my friend and I though Lyon was trying to take advantage of you. I care about you and I just wanted to look out for you," he says, sounding completely serious.

"Oh."

She could've just let it go and invited him over for some cookies or said good night, but at the last minute she decides not to. They've had conversations like this before and Gray always gives her answers like this and she never pushes him because she doesn't want the conversation to sour. But this time, she wants to get an answer out of him. A _real_ one. Because she knows, _she knows_ (and she swears she's not making it up this time or perceiving it through her usual overtly-romance-prone lenses), that he doesn't mean it. That he means something else.

"Are you sure that's the only reason Gray-sama?" she asks, arms folded, eyes narrowed. Maybe being firm and serious will get him to actually take her seriously.

Gray looks at her and gulps. "Yes."

"Really?" Juvia asks him.

Gray looks down and nervously starts unbuttoning his shirt. When he realizes that he's about to strip, he makes an embarrassed squeak and quickly starts buttoning his shirt back.

Juvia knows that maybe she should let up but the thing is, she isn't trying to make him uncomfortable. It's just that, there have been moments like these, moments where she thinks that he might, _maybe_ return her feelings. It's like the times he would insist on going on missions with her when he could've asked any other person or the times where it seemed like he wasn't listening to her but he actually was or the times he would buy her things, little souvenirs from the places he's been from for his missions—she can still remember that one time he bought her that bracelet from Hargeon "because it looked nice or something and I thought you would want a souvenir" and he hadn't bought anything for anyone else. It's moments like these that gives her _hope_ that her affections for him might not be as one-sided as she thinks it is. And right now, what she really needs is hope.

"Yeah, pretty much," Gray nonchalantly says.

"Oh. Okay," Juvia says, her chest heavy with disappointment. She takes a step back and places a hand on the doorframe. "Well. Juvia supposes she should—''

"Okay. Wait. Maybe...maybe you're right. Maybe there is another reason," Gray quickly says.

"Eh?"

"Maybe I did it because I was sort of...kind of...jealous. _Maybe_," Gray mumbles.

Juvia can feel a frisson of excitement bubbling up from inside her but she tries to contain herself. She knows that it probably took a lot of Gray's nerve to actually say it out loud. She figures that he must be really uncomfortable right now because of it. She's going to have to be mature and act calmly about this whole thing so that he won't feel as awkward.

"Okay, Gray-sama. But you don't have to be jealous. Juvia's got her eye on only one guy," Juvia says giving him a playful wink. She just can't help teasing him a little.

Gray looks slightly surprised at the fact that she hasn't screamed, exploded or reacted with an over the top response. Clearly caught off guard, he rubs the back of his neck and says, "Right. Okay. Well. I'll just get going then."

"Okay. Good night, Gray-sama," Juvia cheerfully says.

She's about to close her door when he turns around and nervously clears his throat. "Oh right. Um...before I go...I was wondering...if you're free tomorrow night..."

"Y-Yes. Juvia's free tomorrow night. Why? Does Gray-sama have any plans?" Juvia eagerly asks.

"I...um... managed to reserved a table in Maceo's—''

"Maceo's? Gray-sama! That place is expensive!" Juvia says, alarmed.

"I can afford it. And I heard that you liked it so..." He clears his throat, looking embarrassed. "Anyways, since you're free tomorrow night and I've managed to get a reservation..."

"Y-Yes?" she sputters, her mind already reeling with a million different scenarios. Is he going to ask her out on a date? What if the date goes so well that he'll end up falling in love with her and asking her to marry him? Or...or what if passion overtakes them and they end up having sex? Juvia starts internally panicking, That can't happen yet. She needs time to adjust. To be able to prepare. Gray can't just fling this at her—

"Oi! Juvia! Are you still there?"

She quickly snaps back into focus. "Yes, Gray-sama?"

"You know what? Never mind," Gray says nervously.

"What is it, Gray-sama? Juvia's sorry she wasn't listening. She'll listen this time," Juvia says, desperate for him to get the words out.

"Look, I don't want you to take this the wrong way but..."

"But what?"

"Would you like to go out with me? To Maceo's. You know. If you want to," Gray says, his ears turning red.

He's not saying that they're going as friends. He's not inviting her to a _friendly_ _dinner_. He's inviting her to a _date_. An honest to goodness date. And she knows that if Gray isn't really comfortable with the idea of calling it a date, then he would have clarified and make it clear to her. And said something like, "Oh, it's _not a date_, just a strictly business dinner between two comrades discussing an important mission." But he didn't.

"You mean...like a date?" Juvia asks, just to be sure. Internally, she's trying to control herself. She must keep calm. She can't freak him out.

Gray just shrugs.

It's not exactly a clear-cut answer but it's _Gray_ so that's basically good enough for her.

Calm down.

Calm down, Juvia—oh, who is she kidding? This is _Gray_. She can't just calm down.

"_YES_!" Juvia screams, momentarily turning into her liquid form.

"Ahh!" Gray yells, when a bit of her water splashes against him and she melts across the floor.

She quickly reforms herself before he can freak out any further and gives him a sheepish grin. "Sorry."

"It's...it's okay," Gray says, looking still disturbed. He starts backing away, his left eye twitching in anxiety. "Well, I guess I should get going..."

She takes his hand before he can leave and laces her fingers with his. He looks surprised at the contact but he doesn't shrug her off. "Do you want cookies Gray-sama?"

"Um...Erza would probably kill me—''

"Juvia made Juvi-bread. Or Gray-bread if you don't want to eat her."

"I wouldn't mind eating you," Gray says looking like he's considering the idea. Then, when he realizes what he's said, he quickly sputters, "I mean, I don't mind eating Juvi-bread!"

"Of course, Gray-sama."

"Well...I am pretty hungry." He gives her a grin that makes her want to melt. She thinks that if the reason why he's acting like this around her is because of her date with Lyon-sama, she's going to have to thank Gajeel for interfering after all.

Her best friend is a genius.

Gray nods his head and steps inside. "I guess I can stay for a few minutes."

* * *

**The End**

* * *

**Author's Note: **Wooooo, so we've finally come to the last chapter of the fic. Thank you so much for all of your support and reviews! I feel so happy! =D I always have this silly, little grin whenever I read through what all of you have to say. You guys are so sweet. I''m glad you liked it as much as I had fun writing it.

I sincerely apologize for the delay. I had a couple of issues with my files but I promise that it won't happen again if ever I decided to write anothe multi-chap fic. Anyways, there are a couple of points that I wanted get across in this fic and I hope that it translated well. I'm not going to discuss all of them because I feel like it's pretty obvious but I do have a couple of things to say though about the writing process:

1.) I tried to make sure that I didn't demonize Lyon because I LOVE him and I absolutely dislike Gruvion fics that make either Lyon or Gray out to be some sort of douchebag. Lyon himself isn't a bad guy. Aside from the fact that he creeped me out in his first appearance, he's actually a pretty decent, sweet guy and the only reason why I ship Gruvia over Lyvia is because the former has had more development than the latter. Gray and Juvia have known each other longer, have already established a solid, stronger relationship. They've been through a lot of things together, experiences which bind them closer with each other. This is why in the fic, I really tried to show that the reason why Juvia has stronger feelings for Gray is simply because they're closer with each other and have a deeper relationship with each other. Hopefully, this was translated well enough into the fic.

2.) In Chapter 5, I made it a point for Gray to voice out how it's unfair of Gajeel to blame him or call him a douchebag for rejecting Juvia or not responding to her feelings properly. I don't like it when people give him so much flack for it. Yeah, he was a bit harsh in rejecting her but he is still entitled to his own choices and opinions. Also, I understand where he's sort of coming from with his reluctance to start a relationship with Juvia. it's difficult when you're close friends with someone and you know that there's a possibility you could be more. It's a big risk to take. As cliched as it sounds, I feel like Gray doesn't want to take the next step with Juvia because he's not ready and he's afraid of losing her if their relationship all goes to shit somehow. Believe me, it happens, I've lost a lot of people and had a lot of close friends become strangers because of this scenario. And of course, I support and agree with the popular theory among the fandom which is that Gray is afraid to move the relationship forward because of all the people he has lost.

3.) I tried to emphasize how I don't want Juvia to "change" for Gray. Which doesn't mean that I don't want her to grow up or mature as a character. I want it to be a sort of healthy balance you know? That's what love is. Love is sort of becoming a better person for the sake of your significant other but at the same time keeping true to yourself, being re-assured that you will be loved and will love each other for who you are, flaws and all. I don't like it when people keep saying that Juvia needs to change to be with Gray. Why can't Gray also change for Juvia? Be warmer and less closed off. Also, Juvia has already matured and grown so much in the manga and she's even toned her obsessiveness down. But I also want her to sort of mature on her view of Gray. I don't want her to put him on a pedestal anymore or as Gajeel puts it,"be blinded by his ass rays." This is why I kind of wanted her to see that Gray is capable of being jealous and of doing stupid things because of it like every other person. **muffin-dragon227** basically summed this up in the answer given to my question about why Juvia was upset.

Anyways, that's pretty much it! I'm grateful that you all followed through with everyone's crazy shenanigans! Thank you so much! ^_^


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